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THE    SEVEN    FOLLIES 
OF    SCIENCE 

TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED  A  SMALL  BUDGET  OF  INTERESTING  PARADOXES, 
ILLUSIONS,  MARVELS,  AND  POPULAR  FALLACIES. 

A 
POPULAR  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  MOST  FAMOUS 

SCIENTIFIC   IMPOSSIBILITIES 

AND    THE    ATTEMPTS    WHICH    HAVE    BEEN    MADE    TO    SOLVE    THEM. 


WITH     NUMEROUS     ILLUSTRATIONS 


BY 

JOHN     PHIN 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERE  "  ;  "  How  TO  USB  THE  MICRO- 
SCOPE "  ;  "  THE  WORKSHOP  COMPANION  "  ;  "  THE  SHAKESPEARE  CYCLOPEDIA  M  ; 
EDITOR  MARQUIS  OF  WORCESTER'S  "  CENTURY  OF  INVENTIONS,"  ETC. 


THIRD   EDITION,   GREATLY  ENLARGED 


NEW   YORK 
D.  VAN   NOSTRAND    COMPANY 

25  PARK  PLACE 
1912 


COPYRIGHT  1906,  19X2,  BY 

D.  VAN  NOSTRAND  COMPANY 


PREFACE 


IN  the  following  pages  I  have  endeavored  to  give  a  sim- 
ple account  of  problems  which  have  occupied  the  attention 
of  the  human  mind  ever  since  the  dawn  of  civilization,  and 
which  can  never  lose  their  interest  until  time  shall  be  no 
more.  While  to  most  persons  these  subjects  will  have  but 
an  historical  interest,  yet  even  from  this  point  of  view  they 
are  of  more  value  than  the  history  of  empires,  for  they  are 
the  intellectual  battlefields  upon  which  much  of  our  prog- 
ress in  science  has  been  won.  To  a  few,  however,  some  of 
them  may  be  of  actual  practical  importance,  for  although 
the  schoolmaster  has  been  abroad  for  these  many  years,  it 
is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  the  circle-squarer  and  the  per- 
petual-motion-seeker have  not  ceased  out  of  the  land. 

In  these  days  of  almost  miraculous  progress  it  is  difficult 
to  realize  that  there  may  be  such  a  thing  as  a  scientific  im- 
possibility. I  have  therefore  endeavored  to  point  out 
where  the  line  must  be  drawn,  and  by  way  of  illustration 
I  have  added  a  few  curious  paradoxes  and  marvels,  some 
of  which  show  apparent  contradictions  to  known  laws  of 
nature,  but  which  are  all  simply  and  easily  explained  when 
we  understand  the  fundamental  principles  which  govern  each 
case. 

In  presenting  the  various  subjects  which  are  here  dis- 
cussed, I  have  endeavored  to  use  the  simplest  language 
and  to  avoid  entirely  the  use  of  mathematical  formulae,  for 

254518 


iv  PREFACE 

I  know  by  large  experience  that  these  are  the  bugbear  of 
the  ordinary  reader,  for  whom  this  volume  is  specially  in- 
tended. Therefore  I  have  endeavored  to  state  everything 
in  such  a  simple  manner  that  any  one  with  a  mere  common 
school  education  can  understand  it.  This,  I  trust,  will  ex- 
plain the  absence  of  everything  which  requires  the  use  of 
anything  higher  than  the  simple  rules  of  arithmetic  and  the 
most  elementary  propositions  of  geometry.  And  even  this 
I  have  found  to  be  enough  for  many  lawyers,  physicians, 
and  clergymen  who,  in  the  ardent  pursuit  of  their  profes- 
sions, have  forgotten  much  that  they  learned  at  college. 
And  as  I  hope  to  find  many  readers  amongst  intelligent 
mechanics,  I  have  in  some  cases  suggested  mechanical 
proofs  which  any  expert  handler  of  tools  can  easily  carry 
out. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  very  little  originality  is  claimed 
for  anything  in  the  book,  —  the  only  points  that  are  new 
being  a  few  illustrations  of  well-known  principles,  some  of 
which  had  already  appeared  in  "  The  Young  Scientist  "  and 
"  Self-education  for  Mechanics."  Whenever  the  exact 
words  of  an  author  have  been  used,  credit  has  always 
been  given ;  but  in  regard  to  general  statements  and  ideas, 
I  must  rest  content  with  naming  the  books  from  which  I 
have  derived  the  greatest  assistance.  Ozanam's  "  Recrea- 
tions in  Science  and  Natural  Philosophy,"  in  the  editions 
of  Hutton  (1803)  and  Riddle  (1854),  has  been  a  storehouse 
of  matter.  Much  has  been  gleaned  from  the  "  Budget  of 
Paradoxes  "  by  Professor  De  Morgan  and  also  from  Profes- 
sor W.  W.  R.  Ball's  "  Mathematical  Recreations  and  Prob- 
lems." Those  who  wish  to  inform  themselves  in  regard  to 
what  has  been  done  by  the  per petual -motion-mongers  must 
consult  Mr.  Dirck's  two  volumes  entitled  "Perpetuum 


PREFACE  V 

Mobile  "  and  I  have  made  free  use  of  his  labors.     To  these 
and  one  or  two  others  I  acknowledge  unlimited  credit. 

Some  of  the  marvels  which  are  here  described,  although 
very  old,  are  not  generally  known,  and  as  they  are  easily 
put  in  practice  they  may  afford  a  pleasant  hour's  amusement 
to  the  reader  and  his  friends. 

JOHN  PHIN 

Paterson,  N.  J.,  July,  190$. 


PREFACE   TO   SECOND   EDITION 


THE  notable  favor  with  which  the  first  edition  of  this 
work  has  been  received  has  encouraged  the  author  to  en- 
large it  by  the  addition  of  some  new  problems  and  the 
discussion  of  an  entirely  new  department  of  popular  mis- 
conception and  error.  The  numerous  personal  letters  which 
he  has  received  convince  him  that  a  book  which  gave  a 
simple  and  popular  view  of  the  old  so-called  "scientific 
impossibilities  "  was  needed,  for  very  many  of  those  who 
had  heard  of  the  problems  discussed  in  these  pages  had  the 
most  erroneous  ideas  as  to  their  real  nature,  although  the 
principles  involved  in  most  of  them  are  the  foundation  of 
almost  all  our  scientific  knowledge. 

And  so  the  author  hopes  that  the  subjects  which  have 
been  added  to  this  edition  will  be  as  useful  and  as  inter- 
esting as  those  already  presented. 

JOHN  PHIN 
Paterson,  N.J.,  March  2Ot  iy/1. 


CONTENTS 


Preface 

THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE  PAGB 

Introductory  Note i 

I   Squaring  the  Circle 9 

II  The  Duplication  of  the  Cube 30 

III  The  Trisection  of  an  Angle 33 

IV  Perpetual  Motion 36 

V  The  Transmutation  of  Metals  —  Alchemy 79 

VI  The  Fixation  of  Mercury 92 

VII  The  Universal  Medicine  and  the  Elixir  of  Life    ....  95 

ADDITIONAL  FOLLIES 

Perpetual  or  Ever-burning  Lamps 100 

The  Alkahest  or  Universal  Solvent 104 

Palingenesy 106 

The  Powder  of  Sympathy in 


A  SMALL  BUDGET  OF  PARADOXES,  ILLUSIONS,   AND  MARVELS 
(WITH  APOLOGIES  TO  PROFESSOR  DE  MORGAN) 

The  Fourth  Dimension 117 

How  a  Space  may  be  apparently  Enlarged  by  merely  chang- 
ing its  Shape  126 

Can  a  Man  Lift  Himself  by  the  Straps  of  his  Boots?  ....  128 

How  a  Spider  Lifted  a  Snake 130 

How  the  Shadow  may  be  made  to  move  backward  on  the  Sun- 
dial   , 133 

How  a  Watch  may  be  used  as  a  Compass 134 

Micrography  or  Minute  Writing.  Writing  so  fine  that  the 
whole  Bible,  if  written  in  characters  of  the  same  size, 
might  be  inscribed  twenty-two  times  on  a  square  inch  .  .  136 


Viii  CONTENTS 

Illusions  of  the  Senses 149 

Taste  and  Smell 150 

Sense  of  Heat 150 

Sense  of  Hearing 150 

Sense  of  Touch  — One  Thing  Appearing  as  Two 151 

How  Objects  may  be  apparently  Seen  through  a  Hole  in  the 

Hand 156 

How  to  See  (apparently)  through  a  Solid  Brick 158 

CURIOUS  ARITHMETICAL  PROBLEMS 

The  Chess-board  Problem 163 

The  Nail  Problem 164 

A  Question  of  Population 165 

How  to  Become  a  Millionaire 166 

The  Actual  Cost  and  Present  Value  of  the  First  Folio  Shake- 
speare    168 

Arithmetical  Puzzles 170 

Archimedes  and  His  Fulcrum • 171 

An  Interesting  Egg  Problem 173 

Popular  Fallacies  and  Common  Errors 175 

That  most  Great  Discoveries  were  made  by  Accident 179 

That  the  Idea  of  the  Steam-engine  was  suggested  by  a  Tea-kettle.  182 

That  Whetstones  are  Oiled  to  Lessen  Friction 185 

That  Lightning  never  strikes  Twice  in  Same  Place 187 

That  the  First  Fire  came  from  Branches  of  Trees  moved  by  the 

Wind 189 

That  Volcanoes  are  Burning  Mountains 190 

That  the  Force  of  Dynamite  is  always  Exerted  Downwards     .    .  192 

That  the  Art  of  Hardening  Copper  is  Lost 194 

That  Steam  can  be  Seen 196 

That  Hannibal  used  Vinegar  to  cut  a  Way  over  the  Alps     .    .    .  197 

That  Large  Lenses  are  the  Most  Powerful 197 

That  Serpents  have  Stings  in  their  Tails 199 

That  the  Forked  Tongue  of  the  Snake  is  a  Weapon  of  Offense     .  200 

That  a  Horsehair  placed  in  Water  turns  to  a  Snake 201 

That  Hairs  are  Tubes 203 

That  Worms  shall  eat  Us  after  We  are  Dead 204 

That  a  Decaying  Dead  Carcass  Breeds  Worms 207 

That  Small  Flies  are  the  Young  of  Large  Flies 208 

That  Dragon  Flies  Sting 209 


CONTENTS 

That  Powdered  Glass  is  a  Poison aix 

That  a  Man  Becomes  of  Age  on  His  Twenty-first  Birthday     .    .  an 

That  "  The  Exception  Proves  the  Rule  " 213 

That  Cinderella's  Slipper  was  of  Glass 214 

That  Glass  is  Very  Hard 215 

That  Frankenstein  was  a  Monster 216 

Words  which  convey  Erroneous  Ideas 319 

Knowledge  is  Power 325 


THE    SEVEN    FOLLIES    OF 
SCIENCE 


HE  difficult,  the  dangerous,  and  the  impossible  have 
always  had  a  strange  fascination  for  the  human 
mind.  We  see  this  every  day  in  the  acts  of  boys 
who  risk  life  and  limb  in  the  performance  of 
useless  but  dangerous  feats,  and  amongst  children  of  larger 
growth  we  find  loop-the-loopers,  bridge-jumpers,  and  all 
sorts  of  venture-seekers  to  whom  much  of  the  attraction 
of  these  performances  is  undoubtedly  the  mere  risk  that  is 
involved,  although,  perhaps,  to  some  extent,  notoriety  and 
money-making  may  contribute  their  share.  Many  of  our 
readers  will  doubtless  remember  the  words  of  James  Fitz- 
James,  in  "  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  : 

Or,  if  a  path  be  dangerous  known 
The  danger's  self  is  lure  alone. 

And  in  commenting  on  the  old-time  game  laws  of  England, 
Froude,  the  historian,  says :  "  Although  the  old  forest 
laws  were  terrible,  they  served  only  to  enhance  the  excite- 
ment by  danger." 

That  which  is  true  of  physical  dangers  holds  equally  true 
in  regard  to  intellectual  difficulties.  Professor  De  Mor- 
gan tells  us,  in  his  "Budget  of  Paradoxes,"  that  he  once 
gave  a  lecture  on  "  Squaring  the  Circle "  and  that  a 
gentleman  who  was  introduced  to  it  by  what  he  said,  re- 
marked loud  enough  to  be  heard  by  all  around  :  "  Only 


SEVEN.  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

prove  to  me  that  it  is  impossible  and  I  will  set  about  it 
this  very  evening." 

Therefore  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  certain  very 
difficult,  or  perhaps  impossible  problems  have  in  all  ages 
had  a  powerful  fascination  for  certain  minds.  In  that 
curious  ollapodrida  of  fact  and  fiction,  "The  Curiosities 
of  Literature,"  D'Israeli  gives  a  list  of  six  of  these  prob- 
lems, which  he  calls  "  The  Six  Follies  of  Science."  I  do 
not  know  whether  the  phrase  "  Follies  of  Science  "  origi- 
nated with  him  or  not,  but  he  enumerates  the  Quadrature 
of  the  Circle ;  the  Duplication,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  the 
Multiplication  of  the  Cube ;  the  Perpetual  Motion  ;  the 
Philosophical  Stone ;  Magic,  and  Judicial  Astrology,  as 
those  known  to  him.  This  list,  however,  has  no  classical 
standing  such  as  pertains  to  the  "  Seven  Wonders  of  the 
World,"  the  "  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece,"  the  "  Seven 
Champions  of  Christendom,"  and  others.  There  are  some 
well-known  follies  that  are  omitted,  while  some  authorities 
would  peremptorily  reject  Magic  and  Judicial  Astrology  as 
being  attempts  at  fraud  rather  than  earnest  efforts  to  dis- 
cover and  utilize  the  secrets  of  nature.  The  generally 
accepted  list  is  as  follows  : 

1.  The  Quadrature  of  the  Circle  or,  as  it  is  called  in 

the  vernacular,  "  Squaring  the  Circle." 

2.  The  Duplication  of  the  Cube. 

3.  The  Trisection  of  an  Angle. 

4.  Perpetual  Motion! 

5.  The  Transmutation  of  the  Metals. 

6.  The  Fixation  of  Mercury. 

7.  The  Elixir  of  Life. 

The  Transmutation  of  the  Metals,  the  Fixation  of  Mer- 
cury, and  the  Elixir  of  Life  might  perhaps  be  properly 


THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE  3 

classed  as  one,  under  the  head  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone, 
and  then  Astrology  and  Magic  might  come  in  to  make  up 
the  mystic  number  Seven. 

The  expression  "  Follies  of  Science  "  does  not  seem  a 
very  appropriate  one.  Real  science  has  no  follies.  Neither 
can  these  vain  attempts  be  called  scientific  follies  because 
their  very  essence  is  that  they  are  unscientific.  Each  one 
is  really  a  veritable  "Will-o'-the-Wisp "  for  unscientific 
thinkers,  and  there  are  many  more  of  them  than  those  that 
we  have  here  named.  But  the  expression  has  been  adopted 
in  literature  and  it  is  just  as  well  to  accept  it.  Those  on 
the  list  that  we  have  given  are  the  ones  that  have  become 
famous  in  history  and  they  still  engage  the  attention  of  a 
certain  class  of  minds.  It  is  only  a  few  months  since  a 
man  who  claims  to  be  a  professional  architect  and  techni- 
cal writer  put  forth  an  alleged  method  of  "  squaring  the 
circle,"  which  he  claims  to  be  "  exact  " ;  and  the  results  of 
an  attempt  to  make  liquid  air  a  pathway  to  perpetual 
motion  are  still  in  evidence,  as  a  minus  quantity,  in  the 
pockets  of  many  who  believed  that  all  things  are  pos- 
sible to  modern  science.  And  indeed  it  is  this  false  idea 
of  the  possibility  of  the  impossible  that  leads  astray  the 
followers  of  these  false  lights.  Inventive  science  has 
accomplished  so  much  —  many  of  her  achievements  being 
so  astounding  that  they  would  certainly  have  seemed 
miracles  to  the  most  intelligent  men  of  a  few  generations 
ago — that  the  ordinary  mind  cannot  see  the  difference  be- 
tween unknown  possibilities  and  those  things  which  well- 
established  science  pronounces  to  be  impossible,  (because 
they  contradict  fundamental  laws  which  are  thoroughly 
established  and  well  understood?) 

Thus  any  one  who  would  claim  that  he  could  make  a 


4  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

plane  triangle  in  which  the  three  angles  would  measure 
more  than  two  right  angles,  would  show  by  this  very  claim 
that  he  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of 
geometry.  The  same  would  be  true  of  the  man  who 
would  claim  that  he  could  give,  in  exact  figures,  the  diag- 
onal of  a  square  of  which  the  side  is  exactly  one  foot  or 
one  yard,  and  it  is  also  true  of  the  man  who  claims  that 
he  can  give  the  exact  area  of  a  circle  of  which  either  the 
circumference  or  the  diameter  is  known  with  precision. 
That  they  cannot  both  be  known  exactly  is  very  well 
understood  by  all  who  have  studied  the  subject,  but  that 
the  area,  the  circumference,  and  the  diameter  of  a  circle 
may  all  be  known  with  an  exactitude  which  is  far  in 
excess  of  anything  of  which  the  human  mind  can  form 
the  least  conception,  is  quite  true,  as  we  shall  show  when 
we  come  to  consider  the  subject  in  its  proper  place. 

These  problems  are  not  only  interesting  historically 
but  they  are  valuable  as  illustrating  the  vagaries  of  the 
human  mind  and  the  difficulties  with  which  the  early  in- 
vestigators had  to  contend.  They  also  show  us  the  bar- 
riers over  which  we  cannot  pass,  and  they  enforce  the 
immutable  character  of  the  natural  laws  which  govern 
the  world  around  us.  We  hear  much  of  the  progress  of 
science  and  of  the  changes  which  this  progress  has 
brought  about,  but  these  changes  never  affect  the  funda- 
mental facts  and  principles  upon  which  all  true  science  is 
based.  Theories  and  explanations  and  even  practical 
applications  change  or  pass  away,  so  that  we  know  them 
no  more,  but  nature  remains  the  same  throughout  the 
ages.  No  new  theory  of  electricity  can  ever  take  away 
from  the  voltaic  battery  its  power,  or  change  it  in  any 
respect,  and  no  new  discovery  in  regard  to  the  constitution 


THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE  5 

of  matter  can  ever  lessen  the  eagerness  with  which  carbon 
and  oxygen  combine  together.  Every  little  while  we 
hear  of  some  discovery  that  is  going  to  upset  all  our  pre- 
conceived notions  and  entirely  change  those  laws  which 
long  experience  has  proved  to  be  invariable,  but  in 
every  case  these  alleged  discoveries  have  turned  out  to 
be  fallacies.  For  example,  the  wonderful  properties  of 
radium  have  led  some  enthusiasts  to  adopt  the  idea 
that  many  of  our  old  notions  about  the  conservation  of 
energy  must  be  abandoned,  but  when  all  the  facts  are 
carefully  examined  it  is  found  that  there  is  no  rational 
basis  for  such  views.  Upon  this  point  Sir  Oliver  Lodge 
says : 

"  There  is  absolutely  no  ground  for  the  popular  and  gra- 
tuitous surmise  that  radium  emits  energy  without  loss  or 
waste  of  any  kind,  and  that  it  is  competent  to  go  on  for- 
ever. The  idea,  at  one  time  irresponsibly  mooted,  that  it 
contradicted  the  principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 
and  was  troubling  physicists  with  the  idea  that  they  must 
overhaul  their  theories  —  a  thing  which  they  ought  always 
to  be  delighted  to  do  on  good  evidence  —  this  idea  was  a 
gratuitous  absurdity,  and  never  had  the  slightest  founda- 
tion. It  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  however,  that  radium 
and  the  other  like  substances  are  drawing  upon  their  own 
stores  of  internal  atomic  energy,  and  thereby  gradually  dis- 
integrating and  falling  into  other  and  ultimately  more  stable 
forms  of  matter." 

One  would  naturally  suppose  that  the  extensive  diffusion 
of  sound  scientific  knowledge  which  has  taken  place  during 
the  century  just  past,  would  have  placed  these  problems 
amongst  the  lumber  of  past  ages ;  but  it  seems  that  some 
of  them,  particularly  the  squaring  of  the  circle  and  per- 
petual motion,  still  occupy  considerable  space  in  the  atten- 
tion of  the  world,  and  even  the  futile  chase  after  the 


6  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

"Elixir  of  Life"  has  not  been  entirely  abandoned.  In- 
deed certain  professors  who  occupy  prominent  official  po- 
sitions, assert  that  they  have  made  great  progress  towards 
its  attainment.  In  view  of  such  facts  one  is  almost  driven 
to  accept  the  humorous  explanation  which  De  Morgan  has 
offered  and  which  he  bases  on  an  old  legend  relating  to  the 
famous  wizard,  Michael  Scott.  The  generally  accepted 
tradition,  as  related  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  his  notes  to 
the  "  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  is  as  follows : 

"  Michael  Scott  was,  once  upon  a  time,  much  embar- 
rassed by  a  spirit  for  whom  he  was  under  the  necessity  of 
finding  constant  employment.  He  commanded  him  to 
build  a'cauld,'  or  dam  head  across  the  Tweed  at  Kelso; 
it  was  accomplished  in  one  night,  and  still  does  honor  to 
the  infernal  architect.  Michael  next  ordered  that  Eildon 
Hill,  which  was  then  a  uniform  cone,  should  be  divided 
into  three.  Another  night  was  sufficient  to  part  its  summit 
into  the  three  picturesque  peaks  which  it  now  bears.  At 
length  the  enchanter  conquered  this  indefatigable  demon, 
by  employing  him  in  the  hopeless  task  of  making  ropes  out 
of  sea-sand." 

Whereupon  De  Morgan  offers  the  following  exceedingly 
interesting  continuation  of  the  legend : 

"  The  recorded  story  is  that  Michael  Scott,  being  bound 
by  contract  to  procure  perpetual  employment  for  a  num- 
ber of  young  demons,  was  worried  out  of  his  life  in  invent- 
ing jobs  for  them,  until  at  last  he  set  them  to  make  ropes 
out  of  sea-sand,  which  they  never  could  do.  We  have 
obtained  a  very  curious  correspondence  between  the  wizard 
Michael  and  his  demon  slaves ;  but  we  do  not  feel  at  liberty 
to  say  how  it  came  into  our  hands.  We  much  regret  that 
we  did  not  receive  it  in  time  for  the  British  Association. 
It  appears  that  the  story,  true  as  far  as  it  goes,  was  never 
finished.  The  demons  easily  conquered  the  rope  difficulty, 
by  the  simple  process  of  making  the  sand  into  glass,  and 


THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE  7 

spinning  the  glass  into  thread  which  they  twisted.  Michael, 
thoroughly  disconcerted,  hit  upon  the  plan  of  setting  some 
to  square  the  circle,  others  to  find  the  perpetual  motion, 
etc.  He  commanded  each  of  them  to  transmigrate  from 
one  human  body  into  another,  until  their  tasks  were  done. 
This  explains  the  whole  succession  of  cyclometers  and  all 
the  heroes  of  the  Budget.  Some  of  this  correspondence  is 
very  recent;  it  is  much  blotted,  and  we  are  not  quite  sure 
of  its  meaning.  It  is  full  of  figurative  allusions  to  driving 
something  illegible  down  a  steep  into  the  sea.  It  looks 
like  a  humble  petition  to  be  allowed  some  diversion  in  the 
intervals  of  transmigration;  and  the  answer  is: 

"  'Rumpat  et  serpens  iter  institutum' 

a  line  of  Horace,  which  the  demons  interpret  as  a  direction 
to  come  athwart  the  proceedings  of  the  Institute  by  a  sly 
trick." 

And  really  those  who  have  followed  carefully  the  history 
of  the  men  who  have  claimed  that  they  had  solved  these 
famous  problems,  will  be  almost  inclined  to  accept  De 
Morgan's  ingenious  explanation  as  something  more  than  a 
mere  "  skit."  The  whole  history  of  the  philosopher's  stone, 
of  machines  and  contrivances  for  obtaining  perpetual  motion, 
and  of  circle-squaring,  is  permeated  with  accounts  of  the 
most  gross  and  obvious  frauds.  That  ignorance  played  an 
important  part  in  the  conduct  of  many  who  have  put  forth 
schemes  based  upon  these  pretended  solutions  is  no  doubt 
true,  but  that  a  deliberate  attempt  at  absolute  fraud  was  the 
mainspring  in  many  cases  cannot  be  denied.  Like  Dou- 
sterswivel \s\  "The  Antiquary,"  many  of  the  men  who  ad- 
vocated these  delusions  may  have  had  a  sneaking  suspicion 
that  there  might  be  some  truth  in  the  doctrines  which  they 
promulgated ;  but  most  of  them  knew  that  their  particular 
daims  were  groundless,  and  that  they  were  put  forward  for 
the  purpose  of  deceiving  some  confiding  patron  from  whom 


8  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

they  expected  either  money  or  the  credit  and  glory  of  having 
done  that  which  had  been  hitherto  considered  impossible. 

Some  of  the  questions  here  discussed  have  been  called 
"  scientific  impossibilities  "  —  an  epithet  which  many  have 
considered  entirely  inapplicable  to  any  problem,  on  the 
ground  that  all  things  are  possible  to  science.  And  in 
view  of  the  wonderful  things  that  have  been  accomplished 
in  the  past,  some  of  my  readers  may  well  ask :  "Who  shall 
decide  when  doctors  disagree  ? " 

Perhaps  the  best  answer  to  this  question  is  that  given  by 
Ozanam,  the  old  historian  of  these  and  many  other  scientific 
puzzles.  He  claimed  that  "it  was  the  business  of  the 
Doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  to  discuss,  of  the  Pope  to  decide, 
and  of  a  mathematician  to  go  straight  to  heaven  in  a  per- 
pendicular line ! " 

In  this  connection  the  words  of  De  Morgan  have  a  deep 
significance.  Alluding  to  the  difficulty  of  preventing  men 
of  no  authority  from  setting  up  false  pretensions  and  the 
impossibility  of  destroying  the  assertions  of  fancy  specula- 
tion, he  says :  "  Many  an  error  of  thought  and  learning  has 
fallen  before  a  gradual  growth  of  thoughtful  and  learned 
opposition.  But  such  things  as  the  quadrature  of  the  circle, 
etc.,  are  never  put  down.  And  why  ?  Because  thought 
can  influence  thought,  but  thought  cannot  influence  self- 
conceit;  learning  can  annihilate  learning;  but  learning 
cannot  annihilate  ignorance.  A  sword  may  cut  through  an 
iron  bar,  and  the  severed  ends  will  not  reunite ;  let  it  go 
through  the  air,  and  the  yielding  substance  is  whole  again 
in  a  moment." 


I. 

SQUARING   THE    CIRCLE 


NDOUBTEDLY  one  of  the  reasons  why  this 
problem  has  received  so  much  attention  from 
those  whose  minds  certainly  have  no  special  lean- 
ing towards  mathematics,  lies  in  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  general  impression  abroad  that  the  governments 
of  Great  Britain  and  France  have  offered  large  rewards  for 
its  solution.  De  Morgan  tells  of  a  Jesuit  who  came  all  the 
way  from  South  America,  bringing  with  him  a  quadrature 
of  the  circle  and  a  newspaper  cutting  announcing  that  a 
reward  was  ready  for  the  discovery  in  England.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  his  method  of  solving  the  problem  was 
worthless,  and  even  if  it  had  been  valuable,  there  would 
have  been  no  reward. 

Another  case  was  that  of  an  agricultural  laborer  who 
spent  his  hard-earned  savings  on  a  journey  to  London,  car- 
rying with  him  an  alleged  solution  of  the  problem,  and  who 
demanded  from  the  Lord  Chancellor  the  sum  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds,  which  he  claimed  to  be  the  amount 
of  the  reward  offered  and  which  he  desired  should  be 
handed  over  forthwith.  When  he  failed  to  get  the  money 
he  and  his  friends  were  highly  indignant  and  insisted  that 
the  influence  of  the  clergy  had  deprived  the  poor  man  of 
his  just  deserts ! 

And  it  is  related  that  in  the  year  1788,  one  of  these  de- 
luded individuals,  a  M.  de  Vausenville,  actually  brought  an 

9 


10  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

action  against  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  to  recover 
a  reward  to  which  he  felt  himself  entitled.  It  ought  to  be 
needless  to  say  that  there  never  was  a  reward  offered 
for  the  solution  of  this  or  any  other  of  the  problems  which 
are  discussed  in  this  volume.  Upon  this  point  De  Mor- 
gan has  the  following  remarks : 

"  Montucla  says,  speaking  of  France,  that  he  finds  three 
notions  prevalent  among  the  cyclometers  [or  circle-squar- 
ers]:  i.  That  there  is  a  large  reward  offered  for  success; 

2.  That  the  longitude  problem  depends  on  that  success; 

3.  That  the  solution  is  the  great  end  and  object  of  geometry. 
The  same  three  notions  are  equally  prevalent  among  the 
same  class  in  England.    No  reward  has  ever  been  offered 
by    the    government    of    either    country.    The    longitude 
problem  in  no  way  depends  upon  perfect  solution;  existing 
approximations  are  sufficient  to  a  point  of  accuracy  far 
beyond  what  can  be  wanted.     And  geometry,  content  with 
what  exists,  has  long  pressed  on  to  other  matters.    Some- 
times a  cyclometer  persuades  a  skipper,  who  has  made  land 
in  the  wrong  place,  that  the  astronomers  are  in  fault  for 
using  a  wrong  measure  of  the  circle ;  and  the  skipper  thinks 
it  a  very  comfortable  solution!    And  this  is  the  utmost 
that  the  problem  ever  has  to  do  with  longitude." 

In  the  year  1775  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  of 
Paris  passed  a  resolution  not  to  entertain  communications 
which  claimed  to  give  solutions  of  any  of  the  following 
problems :  The  duplication  of  the  cube,  the  trisection  of 
an  angle,  the  quadrature  of  a  circle,  or  any  machine  an- 
nounced as  showing  perpetual  motion.  And  we  have 
heard  that  the  Royal  Society  of  London  passed  similar 
resolutions,  but  of  course  in  the  case  of  neither  society  did 
these  resolutions  exclude  legitimate  mathematical  investi- 
gations—  the  famous  computations  of  Mr.  Shanks,  to 
which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  hereafter,  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  Royal  Society  of  London  and  published  in 


SQUARING  THE   CIRCLE  II 

their  Transactions.  Attempts  to  "square  the  circle," 
when  made  intelligently,  were  not  only  commendable  but 
have  been  productive  of  the  most  valuable  results.  At  the 
same  time  there  is  no  problem,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  that  of  perpetual  motion,  that  has  caused  more  waste  of 
time  and  effort  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  attempted 
its  solution,  and  who  have  in  almost  all  cases  been  ignorant 
both  of  the  nature  of  the  problem  and  of  the  results  which 
have  been  already  attained.  From  Archimedes  down 
to  the  present  time  some  of  the  ablest  mathemati- 
cians have  occupied  themselves  with  the  quadrature,  or, 
as  it  is  called  in  common  language,  "the  squaring  of  the 
circle  "  ;  but  these  men  are  not  to  be  placed  in  the  same 
class  with  those  to  whom  the  term  "  circle-squarers "  is 
generally  applied. 

As  already  noted,  the  great  difficulty  with  most  circle- 
squarers  is  that  they  are  ignorant  both  of  the  nature  of 
the  problem  to  be  solved  and  of  the  results  which  have 
been  already  attained.  Sometimes  we  see  it  explained  as 
the  drawing  of  a  square  inside  a  circle  and  at  other  times 
as  the  drawing  of  a  square  around  a  circle,  but  both  these 
problems  are  amongst  the  very  simplest  in  practical  geo- 
metry, the  solutions  being  given  in  the  sixth  and  seventh 
propositions  of  the  Fourth  Book  of  Euclid.  Other  defini- 
tions have  been  given,  some  of  them  quite  absurd.  Thus 
in  France,  in  1753,  M.  de  Causans,  of  the  Guards,  cut  a 
circular  piece  of  turf,  squared  it,  and  from  the  result  de- 
duced original  sin  and  the  Trinity.  He  found  out  that  the 
circle  was  equal  to  the  square  in  which  it  is  inscribed,  and 
he  offered  a  reward  for  the  detection  of  any  error,  and  ac- 
tually deposited  10,000  francs  as  earnest  of  300,000.  But 
the  courts  would  not  allow  any  one  to  recover. 


12  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

In  the  last  number  of  the  Athenaeum  for  1855  a  corres- 
pondent says  "  the  thing  is  no  longer  a  problem  but  an 
axiom."  He  makes  the  square  equal  to  a  circle  by  making 
each  side  equal  to  a  quarter  of  the  circumference.  As  De 
Morgan  says,  he  does  not  know  that  the  area  of  the  circle 
is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  figure  of  the  same  cir- 
cuit. 

Such  ideas  are  evidently  akin  to  the  poetic  notion  of  the 
quadrature.  Aristophanes,  in  the  "Birds,"  introduces  a 
geometer,  who  announces  his  intention  to  make  a  square 
circle.  And  Pope  in  the  "Dunciad"  delivers  himself  as 
follows : 

Mad  Mathesis  alone  was  unconfined, 
Too  mad  for  mere  material  chains  to  bind, — 
Now  to  pure  space  lifts  her  ecstatic  stare, 
Now,  running  round  the  circle,  finds  it  square. 

The  author's  note  explains  that  this  "regards  the  wild 
and  fruitless  attempts  of  squaring  the  circle."  The  poetic 
idea  seems  to  be  that  the  geometers  try  to  make  a  square 
circle. 

As  stated  by  all  recognized  authorities,  the  problem  is 
this :  To  describe  a  square  which  shall  be  exactly  equal  in 
area  to  a  given  circle. 

The  solution  of  this  problem  may  be  given  in  two  ways: 

(1)  the  arithmetical  method,  by  which  the  area  of  a  circle 
is  found  and  expressed  numerically  in  square  measure,  and 

(2)  the  geometrical  quadrature,  by  which  a  square,  equal  in 
area  to  a  given  circle,  is  described  by  means  of  rule  and 
compasses  alone. 

Of  course,  if  we  know  the  area  of  the  circle,  it  is 
easy  to  find  the  side  of  a  square  of  equal  area  ;  this  can  be 
done  by  simply  extracting  the  square  root  of  the  area,  pro- 


SQUARING  THE  CIRCLE  13 

vided  the  number  is  one  of  which  it  is  possible  to  extract 
the  square  root.  Thus,  if  we  have  a  circle  which  contains 
100  square  feet,  a  square  with  sides  of  10  feet  would  be 
exactly  equal  to  it.  But  the  ascertaining  of  the  area  of  the 
circle  is  the  very  point  where  the  difficulty  comes  in ;  the 
dimensions  of  circles  are  usually  stated  in  the  lengths  of 
the  diameters,  and  when  this  is  the  case,  the  problem  re- 
solves itself  into  another,  which  is :  To  find  the  area  of  a 
circle  when  the  diameter  is  given. 

Now  Archimedes  proved  that  the  area  of  any  circle  is 
equal  to  that  of  a  triangle  whose  base  has  the  same 
length  as  the  circumference  and  whose  altitude  or  height 
is  equal  to  the  radius.  Therefore  if  we  can  find  the  length 
of  the  circumference  when  the  diameter  is  given,  we  are  in 
possession  of  all  the  points  needed  to  enable  us  to  "  square 
the  circle." 

In  this  form  the  problem  is  known  to  mathematician's 
that  of  the  rectification  of  the  curve. 

In  a  practical  form  this  problem  must  have  presented 
itself  to  intelligent  workmen  at  a  very  early  stage  in  the 
progress  of  operative  mechanics.  Architects,  builders, 
blacksmiths,  and  the  makers  of  chariot  wheels  and  vessels 
of  various  kinds  must  have  had  occasion  to  compare  the 
diameters  and  circumferences  of  round  articles.  Thus 
in  I  Kings,  vii,  23,  it  is  said  of  Hiram  of  Tyre  that  "he 
made  a  molten  sea,  ten  cubits  from  the  one  brim  to  the 
other;  it  was  round  all  about  *  *  *  and  a  line  of 
thirty  cubits  did  compass  it  round  about,"  from  which  it 
has  been  inferred  that  among  the  Jews,  at  that  time,  the 
accepted  ratio  was  3  to  i,  and  perhaps,  with  the  crude 
measuring  instruments  of  that  age,  this  was  as  near  as  could 
be  expected.  And  this  ratio  seems  to  have  been  accepted 


14  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

by  the  Babylonians,  the  Chinese,  and  probably  also  by  the 
Greeks,  in  the  earliest  times.  At  the  same  time  we  must 
not  forget  that  these  statements  in  regard  to  the  ratio 
come  to  us  through  historians  and  prophets,  and  may  not 
have  been  the  figures  used  by  trained  mechanics.  An 
error  of  one  foot  in  a  hoop  made  to  go  round  a  tub  or  cis- 
tern of  seven  feet  in  diameter,  would  hardly  be  tolerated 
even  in  an  apprentice. 

The  Egyptians  seem  to  have  reached  a  closer  approxima- 
tion, for  from  a  calculation  in  the  Rhind  papyrus,  the  ratio  of 
3. 1 6  to  i  seems  to  have  been  at  one  time  in  use.  It  is  prob- 
able, however,  that  in  these  early  times  the  ratio  accepted 
by  mechanics  in  general  was  determined  by  actual  meas- 
urement, and  this,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  is  quite 
capable  of  giving  results  accurate  to  the  second  fractional 
place,  even  with  very  common  apparatus. 

To  Archimedes,  however,  is  generally  accorded  the 
credit  of  the  first  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  in  a 
scientific  manner ;  he  took  the  circumference  of  the  circle 
as  intermediate  between  the  perimeters  of  the  inscribed 
and  the  circumscribed  polygons,  and  reached  the  conclusion 
that  the  ratio  lay  between  3^-  and  3^,  or  between  3.1428 
and  3.1408. 

This  ratio,  in  its  more  accurate  form  of  3.141592  .  .  is 
now  known  by  the  Greek  letter  IT  (pronounced  like  the 
common  word  pie),  a  symbol  which  was  introduced  by 
Euler,  between  1737  and  1748,  and  which  is  now  adopted 
all  over  the  world.  I  have,  however,  used  the  term  ratio, 
or  value  of  the  ratio  instead,  throughout  this  chapter,  as 
probably  being  more  familiar  to  my  readers. 

Professor  Muir  justly  says  of  this  achievement  of 
Archimedes,  that  it  is  "  a  most  notable  piece  of  work  j  the 


SQUARING   THE    CIRCLE  15 

immature  condition  of  arithmetic,  at  the  time,  was  the  only 
real  obstacle  preventing  the  evaluation  of  the  ratio  to  any 
degree  of  accuracy  whatever." 

And  when  we  remember  that  neither  the  numerals  now 

/  in  use  nor  the  Arabic  numerals,  as  they  are  usually  called, 

\  nor   any  system  equivalent  to   our  decimal  system,  was 

\known  to  these  early  mathematicians,   such  a   calculation 

as  that  made  by  Archimedes  was  a  wonderful  feat. 

If  any  of  my  readers,  who  are  familiar  with  the  Hebrew 
or  Greek  numbers,  and  the  mode  of  representing  them  by 
letters,  will  try  to  do  any  of  those  more  elaborate  sums 
which,  when  worked  out  by  modern  methods,  are  mere 
child's  play  in  the  hands  of  any  of  the  bright  scholars  in 
our  common  schools,  they  will  fully  appreciate  the  diffi- 
culties under  which  Archimedes  labored. 

Or,  if  ignorant  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  let  them  try  it 
with  the  Roman  numerals,  and  multiply  XCVIII  by 
MDLVII,  without  using  Arabic  or  common  numerals. 
Professor  McArthur,  in  his  article  on  "  Arithmetic  "  in  the 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  makes  the  following  statement 
on  this  point : 

"  The  methods  that  preceded  the  adoption  of  the  Arabic 
numerals  were  all  comparatively  unwieldy,  and  very  simple 
processes  involved  great  labor.  The  notation  of  the  Ro- 
mans, in  particular,  could  adapt  itself  so  ill  to  arithmetical 
operations,  that  nearly  all  their  calculations  had  to  be 
made  by  the  abacus.  One  of  the  best  and  most  manage- 
able of  the  ancient  systems  is  the  Greek,  though  that,  too, 
is  very  clumsy." 

After  Archimedes,  the  most  notable  result  was  that 
given  by  Ptolemy,  in  the  "  Great  Syntaxis."  He  made 
the  ratio  3.141552,  which  was  a  very  close  approximation. 

For  several  centuries  there  was  little  progress  towards 


v/ 
16  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

a  more  accurate  determination  of  the  ratio.  Among  the 
Hindoos,  as  early  as  the  sixth  century,  the  now  well-known 
value,  3.1416,  had  been  obtained  by  Arya-Bhata,  and  a 
little  later  another  of  their  mathematicians  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  square  root  of  10  was  the  true  value 
of  the  ratio.  He  was  led  to  this  by  calculating  the  perim- 
eters of  the  successive  inscribed  polygons  of  12,  24,  48, 
and  96  sides,  and  finding  that  the  greater  the  number  of 
sides  the  nearer  the  perimeter  of  the  polygon  approached 
the  square  root  of  10.  He  therefore  thought  that  the 
perimeter  or  circumference  of  the  circle  itself  would  be  the 
square  root  of  exactly  10.  It  is  too  great,  however,  being 
3.1622  instead  of  3.14159.  .  .  The  same  idea  is  attrib- 
uted to  Bovillus,  by  Montucla. 

By  calculating  the  perimeters  of  the  inscribed  and  cir- 
cumscribed polygons,  Vieta  (1579)  carried  his  approxima- 
tion to  ten  fractional  places,  and  in  1585  Peter  Metius, 
the  father  of  Adrian,  by  a  lucky  step  reached  the  now 
famous  fraction  ||f ,  or  3.141 59292,  which  is  correct  to  the 
sixth  fractional  place.  The  error  does  not  exceed  one  part 
in  thirteen  millions. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Ludolph 
Van  Ceulen  reached  3  5  places.  This  result,  which  "  in  his 
life  he  found  by  much  labor,"  was  engraved  upon  his 
tombstone  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Leyden.  The  monu- 
ment has  now  unfortunately  disappeared. 

From  this  time  on,  various  mathematicians  succeeded, 
by  improved  methods,  in  increasing  the  approximation. 
Thus  in  1705,  Abraham  Sharp  carried  it  to  72  places; 
Machin  (1706)  to  100  places;  Rutherford  (1841)  to  208 
places,  and  Mr.  Shanks  in  1853,  to  607  places.  The 
same  computer  in  1873  reached  the  enormous  number  of 
707  places. 


SQUARING  THE  CIRCLE  I/ 

Printed  in  type  of  the  same  size  as  that  used  on  this 
page,  these  figures  would  form  a  line  nearly  six  feet  long. 

As  a  matter  of  interest   I  give  here  the  value  of  the 

ratio  of  the  circumference  to  the  diameter,  to  127  places  : 

3.14159  26535  89793  23846/26433  83279  50288  41971 

69399  375 10  58209  74944  59230  78164  06286  20899 

86280  34825  3421 1  70679  82148  0865 1  32723  06647 

09384464- 

The  degree  of  accuracy  which  may  be  attained  by  using 
a  ratio  carried  to  only  ten  fractional  places,  far  exceeds 
anything  that  can  be  required  in  even  the  finest  work,  and 
indeed  it  is  beyond  anything  attainable  by  means  of  our 
present  tools  and  instruments.  For  example:  If  the 
length  of  a  curve  of  100  feet  radius  were  determined  by 
a  value  of  ten  fractional  places,  the  result  would  not  err 
by  the  one-millionth  part  of  an  inch,  a  quantity  which  is 
quite  invisible  under  the  best  microscopes  of  the  present 
day.  This  shows  us  that  in  any  calculations  relating  to 
the  dimensions  of  the  earth,  such  as  longitude,  etc.,  we 
have  at  our  command,  in  the  127  places  of  figures 
given  above,  an  exactness  which  for  all  practical  purposes 
may  be  regarded  as  absolute.  This  will  be  best  appre- 
ciated by  a  consideration  of  the  fact  that  if  the  earth  were 
a  perfect  sphere  and  if  we  knew  its  exact  diameter,  we 
could  calculate  so  exactly  the  length  of  an  iron  hoop  which 
would  go  round  it,  that  the  difference  produced  by  a 
change  of  temperature  equal  to  the  millionth  of  a  millionth 
part  of  a  degree  Fahrenheit,  would  far  exceed  the  error 
arising  from  the  difference  between  the  true  ratio  and  the 
result  thus  reached. 

Such  minute  quantities  are  far  beyond  the  powers  of 
conception  of  even  the  most  thoroughly  trained  human 


18  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

mind,  but  when  we  come  to  use  six  and  seven  hundred 
places  the  results  are  simply  astounding.  Professor 
De  Morgan,  in  his  "  Budget  of  Paradoxes,"  gives  the  fol- 
lowing illustration  of  the  extreme  accuracy  which  might  be 
attained  by  the  use  of  607  fractional  places,  the  highest 
number  which  had  been  reached  when  he  wrote  : 

"  Say  that  the  blood-globule  of  one  of  our  animalcules 
is  a  millionth  of  an  inch  in  diameter.1  Fashion  in  thought 
a  globe  like  our  own,  but  so  much  larger  that  our  globe  is 
but  a  blood-globule  in  one  of  its  animalcules ;  never  mind  the 
microscope  which  shows  the  creature  being  rather  a  bulky 
instrument.  Call  this  the  first  globule  above  us.  Let  the 
first  globe  above  us  be  but  a  blood-globule,  as  to  size,  in  the 
animalcule  of  a  still  larger  globe,  which  call  the  second 
globe  above  us.  Go  on  in  this  way  to  the  twentieth  globe 
above  us.  Now,  go  down  just  as  far  on  the  other  side. 
Let  the  blood-globule  with  which  we  started  be  a  globe 
peopled  with  animals  like  ours,  but  rather  smaller,  and 
call  this  the  first  globe  below  us.  This  is  a  fine  stretch  of 
progression  both  ways.  Now,  give  the  giant  of  the  twen- 
tieth globe  above  us  the  607  decimal  places,  and,  when  he 
has  measured  the  diameter  of  his  globe  with  accuracy 
worthy  of  his  size,  let  him  calculate  the  circumference  of 
his  equator  from  the  607  places.  Bring  the  little  phil- 
osopher from  the  twentieth  globe  below  us  with  his  very 
best  microscope,  and  set  him  to  see  the  small  error  which 

1  What  follows  is  an  exceedingly  forcible  illustration  of  an  important 
mathematical  truth,  but  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  worth  noting  that 
the  size  of  the  blood-globules  or  corpuscles  has  no  relation  to  the 
size  of  the  animal  from  which  they  are  taken.  The  blood  corpuscle 
of  the  tiny  mouse  is  larger  than  that  of  the  huge  ox.  The  smallest 
blood  corpuscle  known  is  that  of  a  species  of  small  deer,  and  the 
largest  is  that  of  a  lizard-like  reptile  found  in  our  southern  waters  — 
the  am  phi  um  a. 

These  facts  do  not  at  all  affect  the  force  or  value  of  De  Morgan's 
mathematical  illustration,  but  I  have  thought  it  well  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader  to  this  point,  lest  he  should  receive  an  erroneous 
physiological  idea, 


SQUARING  THE   CIRCLE  19 

the  giant  must  make.  He  will  not  succeed,  unless  his 
microscopes  be  much  better  for  his  size  than  ours  are  for 
ours." 

It  would  of  course  be  impossible  for  any  human  mind  to 
grasp  the  range  of  such  an  illustration  as  that  just  given. 
At  the  same  time  these  illustrations  do  serve  in  some 
measure  to  give  us  an  impression,^  if  not  an  idea,  of  the 
vastness  on  the  one  hand  and  the  minuteness  on  the  other 
of  the  measurements  with  which  we  are  dealing.  I  there- 
fore offer  no  apology  for  giving  another  example  of  the 
nearness  to  absolute  accuracy  with  which  the  circle  has 
been  "  squared." 

It  is  common  knowledge  that  light  travels  with  a  ve- 
locity of  about  185,000  miles  per  second.  In  other  words, 
light  would  go  completely  round  the  earth  in  a  little  more 
than  one-eighth  of  a  second,  or,  as  Herschel  puts  it,  in  less 
time  than  it  would  take  a  swift  ruoner  to  make  a  single 
stride.  Taking  this  distance  of  185,000  miles  per  second 
as  our  unit  of  measurement,  let  us  apply  it  as  follows : 

It  is  generally  believed  that  our  solar  system  is  but  an 
individual  unit  in  a  stellar  system  which  may  include  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  suns  like  our  own,  with  all  their 
attendant  planets  and  moons.  This  stellar  system  again 
may  be  to  some  higher  system  what  our  solar  system  is  to 
our  own  stellar  system,  and  there  may  be  several  such 
gradations  of  systems,  all  going  to  form  one  complete  whole 
which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  I  shall  call  a  universe. 
Now  this  universe,  complete  in  itself,  may  be  finite  and 
separated  from  all  other  systems  of  a  similar  kind  by  an 
empty  space,  across  which  even  gravitation  cannot  exert  its 
influence.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  imaginary  boundary  of 
this  great  universe  is  a  perfect  circle,  the  extent  of  which 


20  THE   SEVEN    FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

is  such  that  light,  traveling  at  the  rate  we  have  named 
(185,000  miles  per  second),  would  take  millions  of  millions 
of  years  to  pass  across  it,  and  let  us  further  suppose  that 
we  know  the  diameter  of  this  mighty  space  with  perfect 
accuracy ;  then,  using  Mr.  Shanks'  707  places  of  decimal 
fractions,  we  could  calculate  the  circumference  to  such  a 
degree  of  accuracy  that  the  error  would  not  be  visible  under 
any  microscope  now  made. 

An  illustration  which  may  impress  some  minds  even 
more  forcibly  than  either  of  those  which  we  have  just 
given,  is  as  follows : 

Let  us  suppose  that  in  some  titanic  iron-works  a  steel 
armor-plate  had  been  forged,  perfectly  circular  in  shape 
and  having  a  diameter  of  exactly  185,000,000  miles,  or 
very  nearly  that  of  the  orbit  of  the  earth,  and  a  thickness 
of  8000  miles,  or  about  that  of  the  diameter  of  the  earth. 
Let  us  further  assume  that,  owing  to  the  attraction  of  some 
immense  stellar  body,  this  huge  mass  has  what  we  would 
call  a  weight  corresponding  to  that  which  a  plate  of  the 
same  material  would  have  at  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and 
let  it  be  required  to  calculate  the  length  of  the  side  of  a 
square  plate  of  the  same  material  and  thickness  and  which 
shall  be  exactly  equal  to  the  circular  plate. 

Using  the  707  places  of  figures  of  Mr.  Shanks,  the  length 
of  the  required  side  could  be  calculated  so  accurately  that 
the  difference  in  weight  between  the  two  plates  (the  circle 
and  the  square)  would  not  be  sufficient  to  turn  the  scale  of 
the  most  delicate  chemical  balance  ever  constructed. 

Of  course  in  assuming  the  necessary  conditions,  we  are 
obliged  to  leave  out  of  consideration  all  those  more  refined 
details  which  would  embarrass  us  in  similar  calculations  on 
the  small  scale  and  confine  ourselves  to  the  purely  mathe- 


SQUARING  THE   CIRCLE  21 

matical  aspect  of  the  case ;  but  the  stretch  of  imagination 
required  is  not  greater  than  that  demanded  by  many  illus- 
trations of  the  kind. 

So  much,  then,  for  what  is  claimed  by  the  mathemati- 
cians ;  and  the  certainty  that  their  results  are  correct,  as  far 
as  they  go,  is  shown  by  the  predictions  made  by  astrono- 
mers in  regard  to  the  moon's  place  in  the  heavens  at  any 
given  time.  The  error  is  less  than  a  second  of  time  in 
twenty-seven  days,  and  upon  this  the  sailor  depends  for  a 
knowledge  of  his  position  upon  the  trackless  deep.  This 
is  a  practical  test  upon  which  merchants  are  willing  to 
stake,  and  do  stake,  billions  of  dollars  every  day. 

It  is  now  well  established  that,  like  the  diagonal  and 
side  of  a  square,  the  diameter  and  circumference  of  any 
circle  are  incommensurable  quantities.  But,  as  De  Morgan 
says,  "  most  of  the  quadrators  are  not  aware  that  it  has  been 
fully  demonstrated  that  no  two  numbers  whatsoever  can 
represent  the  ratio  of  the  diameter  to  the  circumference, 
with  perfect  accuracy.  When,  therefore,  we  are  told  that 
either  8  to  25  or  64  to  201  is  the  true  ratio,  we  know  that 
it  is  no  such  thing,  without  the  necessity  of  examination. 
The  point  that  is  left  open,  as  not  fully  demonstrated  to 
be  impossible,  is  the  geometrical  quadrature,  the  determina- 
tion of  the  circumference  by  the  straight  line  and  circle, 
used  as  in  Euclid." 

But  since  De  Morgan  wrote,  it  has  been  shown  that  a 
Euclidean  construction  is  actually  impossible.  Those  who 
desire  to  examine  the  question  more  fully,  will  find  a  very 
clear  discussion  of  the  subject  in  Klein's  "Famous  Problems 
in  Elementary  Geometry."  (Boston,  Ginn  &  Co.) 

There  are  various  geometrical  constructions  which  give 
approximate  results  that  are  sufficiently  accurate  for  most 


22  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

practical  purposes.  One  of  the  oldest  of  these  makes  the 
ratio  3y  to  i.  Using  this  ratio  we  can  ascertain  the  cir- 
cumference of  a  circle  of  which  the  diameter  is  given  by 
the  following  method :  Divide  the  diameter  into  7  equal 
parts  by  the  usual  method.  Then,  having  drawn  a  straight 
line,  set  off  on  it  three  times  the  diameter  and  one  of  the 
sevenths  ;  the  result  will  give  the  circumference  with  an 
error  of  less  than  the  one  twenty-five-hundredth  part  or 
one  twenty-fifth  of  one  per  cent. 

If  the  circumference  had  been  given,  the  diameter  might 
have  been  found  by  dividing  the  circumference  into  twenty- 
two  parts  and  setting  off  seven  of  them.  This  would  give 
the  diameter.  A  more  accurate  method  is  as  follows : 

Given  a  circle,  of  which  it  is  desired  to  find  the  length 
of  the  circumference  :  Inscribe  in  the  given  circle  a  square, 
and  to  three  times  the  diameter  of  the  circle  add  a  fifth  of 
the  side  of  the  square ;  the  result  will  differ  from  the  circum- 


Fig.  i. 

ference  of  the  circle  by  less  than  one-seventeen-thousandth 
part  of  it.  Another  method  which  gives  a  result  accurate 
to  the  one-seventeen-thousandth  part  is  as  follows  : 

Let  AD,  Fig.  i,  be  the  diameter  of  the  circle,  C  the 
center,  and  CB  the  radius  perpendicular  to  AD.  Continue 
AD  and  make  DE  equal  to  the  radius  ;  then  draw  BE,  and 
in  AE,  continued,  make  EF  equal  to  it ;  if  to  this  line  EF, 


SQUARING  THE   CIRCLE  23 

its  fifth  part  FG  be  added,  the  whole  line  AG  will  be  equal 
to  the  circumference  described  with  the  radius  CA,  within 
one-seventeen-thousandth  part. 

The  following  construction  gives  even  still  closer  results : 
Given  the  semi-circle  ABC,  Fig  2 ;  from  the  extremities 
A  and  C  of  its  diameter  raise  two  perpendiculars,  one  of 
them  CE,  equal  to  the  tangent  of  30°,  and  the  other  AF, 
equal  to  three  times  the  radius.  If  the  line  FE  be  then 


Fig.  2. 


drawn,  it  will  be  equal  to  the  semi-circumference  of  the 
circle,  within  one-hundred-thousandth  part  nearly.  This  is 
an  error  of  one-thousandth  of  one  per  cent,  an  accuracy 
far  greater  than  any  mechanic  can  attain  with  the  tools 
now  in  use. 

When  we  have  the  length  of  the  circumference  and  the 
length  of  the  diameter,  we  can  describe  a  square  which 


24  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

shall  be  equal  to  the  area  of  the  circle.      The  following  is 
the  method : 

Draw  a  line  ACB,  Fig.  3,  equal  to  half  the  circumference 
and  half  the  diameter  together.  Bisect  this  line  in  O,  and 
with  O  as  a  center  and  AO  as  radius,  describe  the  semi- 
circle ADB.  Erect  a  perpendicular  CD,  at  C,  cutting  the 
arc  in  D  ;  CD  is  the  side  of  the  required  square  which  can 


then  be  constructed  in  the  usual  manner.  The  explanation 
of  this  is  that  CD  is  a  mean  proportional  between  AC 
and  CB. 

De  Morgan  says :  "The  following  method  of  finding  the 
circumference  of  a  circle  (taken  from  a  paper  by  Mr.  S. 
Drach  in  the  'Philosophical  Magazine,'  January,  1863, 
Suppl.),  is  as  accurate  as  the  use  of  eight  fractional  places: 
From  three  diameters  deduct  eight-thousandths  and  seven- 
millionths  of  a  diameter ;  t^  the  result,  add  five  per  cent. 
We  have  then  not  quite  enough  ;  but  the  shortcoming  is 
at  the  rate  of  about  an  inch  and  a  sixtieth  of  an  inch  in 
14,000  miles." 

For  obtaining  the  side  of  a  square  which  shall  be  equal 
in  area  to  a  given  circle,  the  empirical  method,  given  by 
Ahmes  in  the  Rhind  papyrus  4000  years  ago,  is  very 


SQUARING  THE  CIRCLE  25 

simple  and  sufficiently  accurate  for  many  practical  purposes. 
The  rule  is :  Cut  off  one-ninth  of  the  diameter  and  construct 
a  square  upon  the  remainder. 

This  makes  the  ratio  3. 16. .  and  the  error  does  not  exceed 
one-third  of  one  per  cent. 

There  are  various  mechanical  methods  of  measuring  and 
comparing  the  diameter  and  the  circumference  of  a  circle, 
and  some  of  them  give  tolerably  accurate  results.  The 
most  obvious  device  and  that  which  was  probably  the  old- 
est, is  the  use  of  a  cord  or  ribbon  for  the  curved  surface 
and  the  usual  measuring  rule  for  the  diameter.  With  an 
accurately  divided  rule  and  a  thin  metallic  ribbon  which 
does  not  stretch,  it  is  possible  to  determine  the  ratio  to  the 
second  fractional  place,  and  with  a  little  care  and  skill  the 
third  place  may  be  determined  quite  closely. 

An  improvement  which  was  no  doubt  introduced  at  a 
very  early  day  is  the  measuring  wheel  or  circumferentor. 
This  is  used  extensively  at  the  present  day  by  country 
wheelwrights  for  measuring  tires.  It  consists  of  a  wheel 
fixed  in  a  frame  so  that  it  may  be  rolled  along  or  over  any 
surface  of  which  the  measurement  is  desired. 

This  may  of  course  be  used  for  measuring  the  circumfer- 
ence of  any  circle  and  comparing  it  with  the  diameter. 
De  Morgan  gives  the  following  instance  of  its  use :  A 
squarer,  having  read  that  the  circular  ratio  was  undeter- 
mined, advertised  in  a  country  paper  as  follows:  "I  thought 
it  very  strange  that  so  many  great  scholars  in  all  ages 
should  have  failed  in  finding  the  true  ratio  and  have  been 
determined  to  try  myself."  He  kept  his  method  secret, 
expecting  "to  secure  the  benefit  of  the  discovery,"  but  it 
leaked  out  that  he  did  it  by  rolling  a  twelve-inch  disk  along 
a  straight  rail,  and  his  ratio  was  64  to  201  or  3.140625 


26  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

exactly.    As  De  Morgan  says,  this  is  a  very  creditable  piece 
of  work ;  it  is  not  wrong  by  i  in  3000. 

Skilful  machinists  are  able  to  measure  to  the  one-five- 
thousandth  of  an  inch ;  this,  on  a  two-inch  cylinder,  would 
give  the  ratio  correct  to  five  places,  provided  we  could 
measure  the  curved  line  as  accurately  as  we  can  the  straight 
diameter,  but  it  is  difficult  to  do  this  by  the  usual  methods. 
Perhaps  the  most  accurate  plan  would  be  to  use  a  fine  wire 
and  wrap  it  round  the  cylinder  a  number  of  times,  after 
which  its  length  could  be  measured.  The  result  would 
of  course  require  correction  for  the  angle  which  the  wire 
would  necessarily  make  if  the  ends  did  not  meet  squarely 
and  also  for  the  diameter  of  the  wire.  Very  accurate  results 
have  been  obtained  by  this  method  in  measuring  the  diam- 
eters of  small  rods. 

A  somewhat  original  way  of  finding  the  area  of  a  circle 
was  adopted  by  one  squarer.  He  took  a  carefully  turned 
metal  cylinder  and  having  measured  its  length  with  great 
accuracy  he  adopted  the  Archimedean  method  of  finding 
its  cubical  contents,  that  is  to  say,  he  immersed  it  in  water 
and  found  out  how  much  it  displaced.  He  then  had  all 
the  data  required  to  enable  him  to  calculate  the  area  of  the 
circle  upon  which  the  cylinder  stood. 

Since  the  straight  diameter  is  easily  measured  with  great 
accuracy,  when  he  had  the  area  he  could  readily  have  found 
the  circumference  by  working  backward  the  rule  announced 
by  Archimedes,  viz :  that  the  area  of  a  circle  is  equal  to 
that  of  a  triangle  whose  base  has  the  same  length  as  the 
circumference  and  whose  altitude  is  equal  to  the  radius. 

One  would  almost  fancy  that  amongst  circle-squarers 
there  prevails  an  idea  that  some  kind  of  ban  or  magical 
prohibition  has  been  laid  upon  this  problem  ;  that  like  the 


SQUARING  THE   CIRCLE  2? 

hidden  treasures  of  the  pirates  of  old  it  is  protected  from 
the  attacks  of  ordinary  mortals  by  some  spirit  or  demoniac 
influence,  which  paralyses  the  mind  of  the  would-be  solver 
and  frustrates  his  efforts. 

It  is  only  on  such  an  hypothesis  that  we  can  account 
for  the  wild  attempts  of  so  many  men,  and  the  persistence 
with  which  they  cling  to  obviously  erroneous  results  in  the 
face  not  only  of  mathematical  demonstration,  but  of  prac- 
tical mechanical  measurements.  For  even  when  working 
in  wood  it  is  easy  to  measure  to  the  half  or  even  the  one- 
fourth  of  the  hundredth  of  an  inch,  and  on  a  ten-inch  circle 
this  will  bring  the  circumference  to  3.1416  inches,  which  is 
a  corroboration  of  the  orthodox  ratio  (3.14159)  sufficient 
to  show  that  any  value  which  is  greater  than  3.142  or  less 
than  3.141  cannot  possibly  be  correct. 

And  in  regard  to  the  area  the  proof  is  quite  as  simple. 
It  is  easy  to  cut  out  of  sheet  metal  a  circle  10  inches  in 
diameter,  and  a  square  of  7.85  on  the  side,  or  even  one- 
thousandth  of  an  inch  closer  to  the  standard  7.854.  Now 
if  the  work  be  done  with  anything  like  the  accuracy  with 
which  good  machinists  work,  it  will  be  found  that  the  circle 
and  the  square  will  exactly  balance  each  other  in  weight, 
thus  proving  in  another  way  the  correctness  of  the  accepted 
ratio. 

But  although  even  as  early  as  before  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  value  of  the  ratio  had  been  accu- 
rately determined  to  152  places  of  decimals,  the  nineteenth 
century  abounded  in  circle-squarers  who  brought  forward 
the  most  absurd  arguments  in  favor  of  other  values.  In 
1836,  a  French  well-sinker  named  Lacomme,  applied  to  a 
professo?  of  mathematics  for  information  in  regard  to  the 
amount  of  stone  required  to  pave  the  circular  bottom  of  a 


28  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

well,  and  was  told  that  it  was  impossible  "  to  give  a  correct 
answer,  because  the  exact  ratio  of  the  diameter  of  a  circle 
to  its  circumference  had  never  been  determined  "  !  This 
absolutely  true  but  very  unpractical  statement  by  the  pro- 
fessor, set  the  well-sinker  to  thinking ;  he  studied  mathe- 
matics after  a  fashion,  and  announced  that  he  had  discovered 
that  the  circumference  was  exactly  3^  times  the  length  of 
the  diameter  !  For  this  discovery  (?)  he  was  honored  by 
several  medals  of  the  first  class,  bestowed  by  Parisian 
societies. 

Even  as  late  as  the  year  1860,  a  Mr.  James  Smith  of 
Liverpool,  took  up  this  ratio  3^  to  I,  and  published  several 
books  and  pamphlets  in  which  he  tried  to  argue  for  its 
accuracy.  He  even  sought  to  bring  it  before  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  Professors 
De  Morgan  and  Whewell,  and  even  the  famous  mathema- 
tician, Sir  William  Rowan  Hamilton,  tried  to  convince 
him  of  his  error,  but  without  success.  Professor  Whewell's 
demonstration  is  so  neat  and  so  simple  that  I  make  no 
apology  for  giving  it  here.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Smith :  "  You  may  do  this :  calculate  the  side  of  a 
polygon  of  24  sides  inscribed  in  a  circle.  I  think  you  are 
mathematician  enough  to  do  this.  You  will  find  that  if 
the  radius  of  the  circle  be  one,  the  side  of  the  polygon  is 
.264,  etc.  Now  the  arc  which  this  side  subtends  is,  accord- 

•9     J  2  C 

ing  to  your  proposition,  — — -=.2604,  and,  therefore,  the 

chord  is  greater  than  its  arc,  which,  you  will  allow,  is 
impossible." 

This  must  seem,  even  to  a  school-boy,  to  be  unanswer- 
able, but  it  did  not  faze  Mr.  Smith,  and  I  doubt  if  even  the 
method  which  I  have  suggested  previously,  viz.,  that  of 


SQUARING  THE  CIRCLE  29 

cutting  a  circle  and  a  square  out  of  the  same  piece  of  sheet 
metal  and  weighing  them,  would  have  done  so.  And  yet 
by  this  method  even  a  common  pair  of  grocer's  scales  will 
show  to  any  common-sense  person  the  error  of  Mr.  Smith's 
value  and  the  correctness  of  the  accepted  ratio. 

Even  a  still  later  instance  is  found  in  a  writer  who,  in 
1892,  contended  in  the  New  York  "Tribune"  for  3.2 
instead  of  3.1416,  as  the  value  of  the  ratio.  He  an- 
nounces it  as  the  re-discovery  of  a  long  lost  secret,  which 
consists  in  the  knowledge  of  a  certain  line  called  "the 
Nicomedean  line."  This  announcement  gave  rise  to  con- 
siderable discussion,  and  even  towards  the  dawn  of  the 
twentieth  century  3.2  had  its  advocates  as  against  the 
accepted  ratio  3.1416. 

Verily  the  slaves  of  the  mighty  wizard,  Michael  Scott, 
have  not  yet  ceased  from  their  labors  I 


THE   DUPLICATION    OF  THE    CUBE 


HIS  problem  became  famous  because  of  the  halo 
of  mythological  romance  with  which  it  was  sur- 
rounded. The  story  is  as  follows : 

About  the  year  430  B.C.  the  Athenians  were 
afflicted  by  a  terrible  plague,  and  as  no  ordinary  means 
seemed  to  assuage  its  virulence,  they  sent  a  deputation  of 
the  citizens  to  consult  the  oracle  of  Apollo  at  Delos,  in  the 
hope  that  the  god  might  show  them  how  to  get  rid  of  it. 

The  answer  was  that  the  plague  would  cease  when  they 
had  doubled  the  size  of  the  altar  of  Apollo  in  the  temple 
at  Athens.  This  seemed  quite  an  easy  task ;  the  altar  was 
a  cube,  and  they  placed  beside  it  another  cube  of  exactly 
the  same  size.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  the  conditions  pre- 
scribed by  the  oracle,  and  the  people  were  told  that  the 
altar  must  consist  of  one  cube,  the  size  of  which  must  be 
exactly  twice  the  size  of  the  original  altar.  They  then 
constructed  a.  cubic  altar  of  which  the  side  or  edge  was 
twice  that  of  the  original,  but  they  were  told  that  the  new 
altar  was  eight  times  and  not  twice  the  size  of  the  original, 
and  the  god  was  so  enraged  that  the  plague  became  worse 
than  before. 

According  to  another  legend,  the  reason  given  for  the 
affliction  was  that  the  people  had  devoted  themselves  to 
pleasure  and  to  sensual  enjoyments  and  pursuits,  and  had 
neglected  the  study  of  philosophy,  of  which  geometry  is 


THE  DUPLICATION   OF   THE  CUBE  31 

one  of  the  higher  departments  —  certainly  a  very  sound 
reason,  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  details  of  the  story. 
The  people  then  applied  to  the  mathematicians,  and  it  is 
supposed  that  their  solution  was  sufficiently  near  the  truth 
to  satisfy  Apollo,  who  relented,  and  the  plague  disappeared. 

In  other  words,  the  leading  citizens  probably  applied 
themselves  to  the  study  of  sewerage  and  hygienic  condi- 
tions, and  Apollo  (the  Sun)  instead  of  causing  disease  by 
the  festering  corruption  of  the  usual  filth  of  cities,  especi- 
ally in  the  East,  dried  up  the  superfluous  moisture,  and 
promoted  the  health  of  the  inhabitants. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  relation  of  the  area  and  the 
cubical  contents  of  any  figure  to  the  linear  dimensions  of 
that  figure  are  not  so  generally  understood  as  we  should 
expect  in  these  days  when  the  schoolmaster  is  supposed 
to  be  "abroad  in  the  land."  At  an  examination  of  candi- 
dates for  the  position  of  fireman  in  one  of  our  cities,  several 
of  the  applicants  made  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  a 
two-inch  pipe  and  a  five-inch  pipe  were  equal  to  a  seven-inch 
pipe,  whereas  the  combined  capacities  of  the  two  small 
pipes  are  to  the  capacity  of  the  large  one  as  29  to  49. 

This  reminds  us  of  a  story  which  Sir  Frederick  Bram- 
well,  the  engineer,  used  to  tell  of  a  water  company  using 
water  from  a  stream  flowing  through  a  pipe  of  a  certain 
diameter.  The  company  required  more  water,  and  after 
certain  negotiations  with  the  owner  of  the  stream,  offered 
double  the  sum  if  they  were  allowed  a  supply  through  a 
pipe  of  double  the  diameter  of  the  one  then  in  use.  This 
was  accepted  by  the  owner,  who  evidently  was  not  aware  of 
the  fact  that  a  pipe  of  double  the  diameter  would  carry 
four  times  the  supply. 

A  square  whose  side  is  twice  the  length  of  another,  and 


32  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

a  circle  whose  diameter  is  twice  that  of  another  will  each 
have  an  area  four  times  that  of  the  original.  And  in  the 
case  of  solids :  A  ball  of  twice  the  diameter  will  weigh 
eight  times  as  much  as  the  original,  and  a  ball  of  three  times 
the  diameter  will  weigh  twenty-seven  times  as  much  as  the 
original. 

In  attempting  to  calculate  the  side  of  a  cube  which  shall 
have  twice  the  volume  of  a  given  cube,  we  meet  the  old 
difficulty  of  incommensurability,  and  the  solution  cannot  be 
effected  geometrically,  as  it  requires  the  construction  of 
two  mean  proportionals  between  two  given  lines. 


Ill 

THE   TRISECTION   OF   AN   ANGLE 


HIS  problem  is  not  so  generally  known  as  that  of 
squaring  the  circle,  and  consequently  it  has  not 
received  so  much  attention  from  amateur  mathe- 
maticians, though  even  within  little  more  than  a 
year  a  small  book,  in  which  an  attempted  solution  is  given, 
has  been  published.  When  it  is  first  presented  to  an  un- 
educated reader,  whose  mind  has  a  mathematical  turn,  and 
especially  to  a  skilful  mechanic,  who  has  not  studied  theo- 
retical geometry,  it  is  apt  to  create  a  smile,  because  at  first 
sight  most  persons  are  impressed  with  an  idea  of  its  sim- 
plicity, and  the  ease  with  which  it  may  be  solved.  And 
this  is  true,  even  of  many  persons  who  have  had  a  fair  gen- 
eral education.  Those  who  have  studied  only  what  is 
known  as  "practical  geometry"  think  at  once  of  the  ease 
and  accuracy  with  which  a  right  angle,  for  example,  may 
be  divided  into  three  equal  parts.  Thus  taking  the  right 
angle  ACB,  Fig.  4,  which  may  be  set  off  more  easily  and 
accurately  than  any  other  angle  except,  perhaps,  that  of 
60°,  and  knowing  that  it  contains  90°,  describe  an  arc 
ADEB,  with  C  for  the  center  and  any  convenient  radius. 
Now  every  schoolboy  who  has  played  with  a  pair  of  com- 
passes knows  that  the  radius  of  a  circle  will  "  step  "  round 
the  circumference  exactly  six  times ;  it  will  therefore 
divide  the  360°  into  six  equal  parts  of  60°  each.  This 
being  the  case,  with  the  radius  CB,  and  B  for  a  center, 

33 


34 


THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 


describe  a  short  arc  crossing  the  arc  ADEB  in  D,  and  join 
CD.  The  angle  DCB  will  be  60°,  and  as  the  angle  ACB 
is  90°,  the  angle  ACD  must  be  30°,  or  one-third  part  of 
the  whole.  In  the  same  way  lay  off  the  angle  ACE  of 
60°,  and  ECB  must  be  30°,  and  the  remainder  DCE  must 
also  be  30°.  The  angle  ACB  is  therefore  easily  divided 


Fig.  4- 

into  three  equal  parts,  or  in  other  words,  it  is  trisected. 
And  with  a  slight  modification  of  the  method,  the  same 
may  be  done  with  an  angle  of  45°,  and  with  some  others. 
These  however  are  only  special  cases,  and  the  very  essence 
of  a  geometrical  solution  of  any  problem  is  that  it  shall  be 
applicable  to  all  cases  so  that  we  require  a  method  by 
which  any  angle  may  be  divided  into  three  equal  parts  by 
a  pure  Euclidian  construction.  The  ablest  mathematicians 
declare  that  the  problem  cannot  be  solved  by  such  means, 
and  De  Morgan  gives  the  following  reasons  for  this  conclu- 
sion:  "The  trisector  of  an  angle,  if  he  demand  attention 
from  any  mathematician,  is  bound  to  produce  from  his  con- 
struction, an  expression  for  the  sine  or  cosine  of  the  third 
part  of  any  angle,  in  terms  of  the  sine  or  cosine  of  the 
angle  itself,  obtained  by  the  help  of  no  higher  than  the 


THE   TRISECTION   OF  AN  ANGLE  33 

square  root.  The  mathematician  knows  that  such  a  thing 
cannot  be ;  but  the  trisector  virtually  says  it  can  be,  and 
is  bound  to  produce  it  to  save  time.  This  is  the  misfortune 
of  most  of  the  solvers  of  the  celebrated  problems,  that  they 
have  not  knowledge  enough  to  present  those  consequences 
of  their  results  by  which  they  can  be  easily  judged." 

De  Morgan  gives  an  account  of  a  "  terrific  "  construc- 
tion by  a  friend  of  Dr.  Wallich,  which  he  says  is  "so 
nearly  true,  that  unless  the  angle  be  very  obtuse,  common 
drawing,  applied  to  the  construction,  will  not  detect  the 
error."  But  geometry  requires  absolute  accuracy,  not  a 
mere  approximation. 


IV 
PERPETUAL   MOTION 


T  is  probable  that  more  time,  effort,  and  money 
have  been  wasted  in  the  search  for  a  perpetual- 
motion  machine  than  have  been  devoted  to  at- 
tempts to  square  the  circle  or  even  to  find  the 
philosopher's  stone.  And  while  it  has  been  claimed  in 
favor  of  this  delusion  that  the  pursuit  of  it  has  given  rise 
to  valuable  discoveries  in  mechanics  and  physics,  some 
even  going  so  far  as  to  urge  that  we  owe  the  discovery  of 
the  great  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy  to  the  sugges- 
tions made  by  the  perpetual -motion  seekers,  we  certainly 
have  no  evidence  to  show  anything  of  the  kind.  Perpetual 
motion  was  declared  to  be  an  impossibility  upon  purely 
mechanical  and  mathematical  grounds  long  before  the  law 
of  the  conservation  of  energy  was  thought  of,  and  it  is  very 
certain  that  this  delusion  had  no  place  in  the  thoughts  of 
Rumford,  Black,  Davy,  Young,  Joule,  Grove,  and  others 
when  they  devoted  their  attention  to  the  laws  governing 
the  transformation  of  energy.  Those  who  pursued  such  a 
will-o'-the-wisp,  were  not  the  men  to  point  the  way  to  any 
scientific  discovery. 

The  search  for  a  perpetual-motion  machine  seems  to  be 
of  comparatively  modern  origin  ;  we  have  no  record  of  the 
labors  of  ancient  inventors  in  this  direction,  but  this  may 
be  as  much  because  the  records  have  been  lost,  as  because 
attempts  were  never  made.  The  works  of  a  mechanical 

36 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  3? 

inventor  rarely  attracted  much  attention  in  ancient  times, 
while  the  mathematical  problems  were  regarded  as  amongst 
the  highest  branches  of  philosophy,  and  the  search  for  the 
philosopher's  stone  and  the  elixir  of  life  appealed  alike  to 
priest  and  layman.  We  have  records  of  attempts  made 
4000  years  ago  to  square  the  circle,  and  the  history  of  the 
philosopher's  stone  is  lost  in  the  mists  of  antiquity ;  but  it 
is  not  until  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century  that  we  find 
any  reference  to  perpetual  motion,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  that  this  problem  found  a  prominent  place 
in  the  writings  of  the  day. 

By  perpetual  motion  is  meant  a  machine  which,  without 
assistance  from  any  external  source  except  gravity,  shall 
continue  to  go  on  moving  until  the  parts  of  which  it  is 
made  are  worn  out.  Some  insist  that  in  order  to  be  prop- 
erly entitled  to  the  name  of  a  perpetual-motion  machine, 
it  must  evolve  more  power  than  that  which  is  merely  re- 
quired to  run  it,  and  it  is  true  that  almost  all  those  who 
have  attempted  to  solve  this  problem  have  avowed  this  to 
be  their  object,  many  going  so  far  as  to  claim  for  their 
contrivances  the  ability  to  supply  unlimited  power  at  no 
cost  whatever,  except  the  interest  on  a  small  investment, 
and  the  trifling  amount  of  oil  required  for  lubrication. 
But  it  is  evident  that  a  machine  which  would  of  itself 
maintain  a  regular  and  constant  motion  would  be  of  great 
value,  even  if  it  did  nothing  more  than  move  itself.  And 
this  seems  to  have  been  the  idea  upon  which  those  men 
worked,  who  had  in  view  the  supposed  reward  offered  for 
such  an  invention  as  a  means  for  finding  the  longitude. 
And  it  is  well  known  that  it  was  the  hope  of  attaining 
such  a  reward  that  spurred  on  very  many  of  those  who 
devoted  their  time  and  substance  to  the  subject. 


38  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

There  are  several  legitimate  and  successful  methods  of 
obtaining  a  practically  perpetual  motion,  provided  we  are 
allowed  to  call  to  our  aid  some  one  of  the  various  natural 
sources  of  power.  For  example,  there  are  numerous  moun- 
tain streams  which  have  never  been  known  to  fail,  and 
which  by  means  of  the  simplest  kind  of  a  water-wheel 
would  give  constant  motion  to  any  light  machinery.  Even 
the  wind,  the  emblem  of  fickleness  and  inconstancy,  may 
be  harnessed  so  that  it  will  furnish  power,  and  it  does  not 
require  very  much  mechanical  ingenuity  to  provide  means 
whereby  the  surplus  power  of  a  strong  gale  may  be  stored 
up  and  kept  in  reserve  for  a  time  of  calm.  Indeed  this 
has  frequently  been  done  by  the  raising  of  weights,  the 
winding  up  of  springs,  the  pumping  of  water  into  storage 
reservoirs  and  other  simple  contrivances. 

The  variations  which  are  constantly  occurring  in  the 
temperature  and  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  have  also 
been  forced  into  this  service.  A  clock  which  required  no 
winding  was  exhibited  in  London  towards  the  latter  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  called  a  perpetual 
motion,  and  the  working  power  was  derived  from  variations 
in  the  quantity,  and  consequently  in  the  weight  of  the 
mercury,  which  was  forced  up  into  a  glass  tube  closed  at 
the  upper  end  and  having  the  lower  end  immersed  in  a 
cistern  of  mercury  after  the  manner  of  a  barometer.  It 
was  fully  described  by  James  Ferguson,  whose  lectures  on 
Mechanics  and  Natural  Philosophy  were  edited  by  Sir 
David  Brewster.  It  ran  for  years  without  requiring  wind- 
ing, and  is  said  to  have  kept  very  good  time.  A  similar 
contrivance  was  employed  in  a  clock  which  was  possessed 
by  the  Academy  of  Painting  at  Paris.  It  is  described  in 
Ozanam's  work,  Vol.  II,  page  105,  of  the  edition  of  1803. 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  39 

The  changes  which  are  constantly  taking  place  in  the 
temperature  of  all  bodies,  and  the  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion which  these  variations  produce,  afford  a  very  efficient 
power  for  clocks  and  small  machines.  Professor  W.  W.  R. 
Ball  tells  us  that  "there  was  at  Paris  in  the  latter  half  of 
last  century  a  clock  which  was  an  ingenious  illustration  of 
such  perpetual  motion.  The  energy,  which  was  stored  up 
in  it  to  maintain  the  motion  of  the  pendulum,  was  provided 
by  the  expansion  of  a  silver  rod.  This  expansion  was 
caused  by  the  daily  rise  of  temperature,  and  by  means  of  a 
train  of  levers  it  wound  up  the  clock.  There  was  a  dis- 
connecting apparatus,  so  that  the  contraction  due  to  a  fall 
of  temperature  produced  no  effect,  and  there  was  a  similar 
arrangement  to  prevent  overwinding.  I  believe  that  a  rise 
of  eight  or  nine  degrees  Fahrenheit  was  sufficient  to  wind 
up  the  clock  for  twenty-four  hours." 

Another  indirect  method  of  winding  a  watch  is  thus 
described  by  Professor  Ball: 

"  I  have  in  my  possession  a  watch,  known  as  the  Lohr 
patent,  which  produces  the  same  effect  by  somewhat  differ- 
ent means.  Inside  the  case  is  a  steel  weight,  and  if  the 
watch  is  carried  in  a  pocket  this  weight  rises  and  falls  at 
every  step  one  takes,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  a 
pedometer.  The  weight  is  moved  up  by  the  action  of  the 
person  who  has  it  in  his  pocket,  and  in  falling  the  weight 
winds  up  the  spring  of  the  watch.  On  the  face  is  a  small 
dial  showing  the  number  of  hours  for  which  the  watch  is 
wound  up.  As  soon  as  the  hand  of  this  dial  points  to  fifty- 
six  hours,  the  train  of  levers  which  wind  up  the  watch  dis- 
connects automatically,  so  as  to  prevent  overwinding  the 
spring,  and  it  reconnects  again  as  soon  as  the  watch  has 
run  down  eight  hours.  The  watch  is  an  excellent  time- 
keeper, and  a  walk  of  about  a  couple  of  miles  is  sufficient 
to  wind  it  up  for  twenty-four  hours." 


40  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

Dr.  Hooper,  in  his  "Rational  Recreations,"  has  described 
a  method  of  driving  a  clock  by  the  motion  of  the  tides,  and 
it  would  not  be  difficult  to  contrive  a  very  simple  arrange- 
ment which  would  obtain  from  that  source  much  more 
power  than  is  required  for  that  purpose.  Indeed  the  prob- 
ability is  that  many  persons  now  living  will  see  the  time 
when  all  our  railroads,  factories,  and  lighting  plants  will  be 
operated  by  the  tides  of  the  ocean.  It  is  only  a  question 
of  return  for  capital,  and  it  is  well  known  that  that  has 
been  falling  steadily  for  years.  When  the  interest  on  in- 
vestments  falls  to  a  point  sufficiently  low,  the  tides  will  be 
harnessed  and  the  greater  part  of  the  heat,  light,  and  power 
that  we  require  will  be  obtained  from  the  immense  amount 
of  energy  that  now  goes  to  waste  along  our  coasts. 

Another  contrivance  by  which  a  seemingly  perpetual 
motion  may  be  obtained  is  the  dry  pile  or  column  of  De  Luc. 
The  pile  consists  of  a  series  of  disks  of  gilt  and  silvered 
paper  placed  back  to  back  and  alternating,  all  the  gilt  sides 
facing  one  way  and  all  the  silver  sides  the  other.  The  so- 
called  gilding  is  really  Dutch  metal  or  copper,  and  the  sil- 
ver is  tin  or  zinc,  so  that  the  two  actually  form  a  voltaic 
couple.  Sometimes  the  paper  is  slightly  moistened  with 
a  weak  solution  of  molasses  to  insure  a  certain  degree  of 
dampness ;  this  increases  the  action,  for  if  the  paper  be 
artificially  dried  and  kept  in  a  perfectly  dry  atmosphere, 
the  apparatus  will  not  work.  A  pair  of  these  piles,  each 
containing  two  or  three  thousand  disks  the  size  of  a  quarter 
of  a  dollar,  may  be  arranged  side  by  side,  vertically,  and 
two  or  three  inches  apart.  At  the  lower  ends  they  are 
connected  by  a  brass  plate,  and  the  upper  ends  are 
each  surmounted  by  a  small  metal  bell  and  between  these 
bells  a  gilt  ball,  suspended  by  a  silk  thread,  keeps  vibrating 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  4! 

perpetually.  Many  years  ago  I  made  a  pair  of  these  col- 
umns which  kept  a  ball  in  motion  for  nearly  two  years,  and 
Professor  Silliman  tells  us  that  "  a  set  of  these  bells  rang 
in  Yale  College  laboratory  for  six  or  eight  years  unceas- 
ingly." How  much  longer  the  columns  would  have  con- 
tinued to  furnish  energy  sufficient  to  cause  the  balls  to 
vibrate,  it  might  be  difficult  to  determine.  The  amount  of 
energy  required  is  exceedingly  small,  but  since  the  columns 
are  really  nothing  but  a  voltaic  pile,  it  is  very  evident  that 
after  a  time  they  would  become  exhausted. 

Such  a  pair  of  columns,  covered  with  a  tall  glass  shade, 
form  a  very  interesting  piece  of  bric-a-brac,  especially  if  the 
bells  have  a  sweet  tone,  but  the  contrivance  is  of  no  prac- 
tical use  except  as  embodied  in  Bohnenberger's  electroscope. 

Inventions  of  this  kind  might  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely, but  none  of  these  devices  can  be  called  a  perpetual 
motion  because  they  all  depend  for  their  action  upon  energy 
derived  from  external  sources  other  than  gravity.  But 
the  authors  of  these  inventions  are  not  to  be  classed  with 
the  regular  perpetual-motion-mongers.  The  purposes  for 
which  these  arrangements  were  invented  were  legitimate, 
and  the  contrivances  answered  fully  the  ends  for  which 
they  were  intended.  The  real  perpetual-motion-seekers 
are  men  of  a  different  stamp,  and  their  schemes  readily  fall 
into  one  of  these  three  classes:  i.  ABSURDITIES,  2.  FAL- 
LACIES, 3.  FRAUDS.  The  following  is  a  description  of 
the  most  characteristic  machines  and  apparatus  of  which 
accounts  have  been  published. 


42  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

I.    ABSURDITIES 

In  this  class  may  be  included  those  inventions  which  have 
been  made  or  suggested  by  honest  but  ignorant  persons  in 
direct  violation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  mechanics 
and  physics.  Such  inventions  if  presented  to  any  expert 
mechanic  or  student  of  science,  would  be  at  once  condemned 
as  impracticable,  but  as  a  general  rule,  the  inventors  of  these 
absurd  contrivances  have  been  so  confident  of  success,  that 
they  have  published  descriptions  and  sketches  of  them,  and 
even  gone  so  far  as  to  take  out  patents  before  they  have 
tested  their  inventions  by  constructing  a  working  machine. 
It  is  said,  that  at  one  time  the  United  States  Patent  Office 
issued  a  circular  refusal  to  all  applicants  for  patents  of  this 
kind,  but  at  present  instead  of  sending  such  a  circular,  the 
applicant  is  quietly  requested  to  furnish  a  working  model 
of  his  invention  and  that  usually  ends  the  matter.  While 
I  have  no  direct  information  on  the  subject,  I  suspect  that 
the  circular  was  withdrawn  because  of  the  amount  of  useless 
correspondence,  in  the  shape  of  foolish  replies  and  argu- 
ments, which  it  drew  forth.  To  require  a  working  model 
is  a  reasonable  request  and  one  for  which  the  law  duly  pro- 
vides, and  when  a  successful  model  is  forthcoming,  a  patent 
will  no  doubt  be  granted  ;  but  until  that  is  presented  the 
officials  of  the  Patent  Office  can  have  no  positive  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  the  practicability  of  the  invention. 

The  earliest  mechanical  device  intended  to  produce  per- 
petual motion  is  that  known  as  the  overbalancing  wheel 
This  is  described  in  a  sketch  book  of  the  thirteenth  century 
by  Wilars  de  Honecourt,  an  architect  of  the  period,  and 
since  then  it  has  been  reinvented  hundreds  of  times.  In  its 
simplest  forms  it  is  thus  described  and  figured  by  Ozanam  : 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  43 

"  Fig.  5  represents  a  large  wheel,  the  circumference  of 
which  is  furnished,  at  equal  distances,  with  levers,  each 
bearing  at  its  extremity  a  weight,  and  movable  on  a  hinge 
so  that  in  one  direction  they  can  rest  upon  the  circumfer- 
ence, while  on  the  opposite  side,  being  carried  away  by  the 
weight  at  the  extremity,  they  are  obliged  to  arrange  them- 
selves in  the  direction  of  the  radius  continued.  This  being 
supposed,  it  is  evident  that  when  the  wheel  turns  in  the 
direction  ABC,  the  weights  A,  B,  and  C  will  recede  from  the 
center;  consequently,  as  they  act  with  more  force,  they 
will  carry  the  wheel  towards  that  side ;  and  as  a  new  lever 


Fig.  5.  Fig.  6. 

will  be  thrown  out,  in  proportion  as  the  wheel  revolves,  it 
thence  follows,  say  they,  that  the  wheel  will  continue  to 
move  in  the  same  direction.  But  notwithstanding  the 
specious  appearance  of  this  reasoning,  experience  has 
proved  that  the  machine  will  not  go ;  and  it  may  indeed  be 
demonstrated  that  there  is  a  certain  position  in  which  the 
center  of  gravity  of  all  these  weights  is  in  the  vertical 
plane  passing  through  the  point  of  suspension,  and  that 
therefore  it  must  stop." 

Another  invention  of  a  similar  kind  is  thus  described  by 

the  same  author  : 

"  In  a  cylindric  drum,  in  perfect  equilibrium  on  its  axis, 
are  formed  channels  as  seen  in  Fig.  6,  which  contain  balls 
of  lead  or  a  certain  quantity  of  quicksilver.  In  consequence 
of  this  disposition,  the  balls  or  quicksilver  must,  on  the  one 
side,  ascend  by  approaching  the  center,  and  on  the  other 


44  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

must  roll  towards  the  circumference.    The  machine  ought, 
therefore,  to  turn  incessantly  towards  that  side." 

In  his  "  Course  of  Lectures  on  Natural  Philosophy," 
Dr.  Thomas  Young  speaks  of  these  contrivances  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  One  of  the  most  common  fallacies,  by  which  the  super- 
ficial projectors  of  machines  for  obtaining  perpetual  motion 
have  been  deluded,  has  arisen  from  imagining  that  any 


Fig.  7- 

number  of  weights  ascending  by  a  certain  path,  on  one 
side  of  the  center  of  motion  and  descending  on  the  other 
at  a  greater  distance,  must  cause  a  constant  preponderance 
on  the  side  of  the  descent:  for  this  purpose  the  weights 
have  either  been  fixed  on  hinges,  which  allow  them  to  fall 
over  at  a  certain  point,  so  as  to  become  more  distant  from 
the  center,  or  made  to  slide  or  roll  along  grooves  or  planes 
which  lead  them  to  a  more  remote  part  of  the  wheel,  from 
whence  they  return  as  they  ascend;  but  it  will  appear  on 
the  inspection  of  such  a  machine,  that  although  some  of 
the  weights  are  more  distant  from  the  center  than  others, 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  45 

yet  there  is  always  a  proportionately  smaller  number  of 
them  on  that  side  on  which  they  have  the  greatest  power, 
so  that  these  circumstances  precisely  counterbalance  each 
other." 

He  then  gives  the  illustration  (Fig.  7),  shown  on  the 
preceding  page,  of  "a  wheel  supposed  to  be  capable  of  pro- 
ducing a  perpetual  motion;  the  descending  balls  acting  at  a 
greater  distance  from  the  center,  but  being  fewer  in  number 
than  the  ascending.  In  the  model,  the  balls  may  be  kept 
in  their  places  by  a  plate  of  glass  covering  the  wheel." 


Fig.  8. 

A  more  elaborate  arrangement  embodying  the  same  idea 
is  figured  and  described  by  Ozanam.  The  machine,  which 
is  shown  in  Fig.  8,  consists  of  "  a  kind  of  wheel  formed  of 
six  or  eight  arms,  proceeding  from  a  center  where  the  axis 
of  motion  is  placed.  Each  of  these  arms  is  furnished  with 
a  receptacle  in  the  form  of  a  pair  of  bellows :  but  those  on 
the  opposite  arms  stand  in  contrary  directions,  as  seen  in 


46  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

the  figure.  The  movable  top  of  each  receptacle  has 
affixed  to  it  a  weight,  which  shuts  it  in  one  situation  and 
opens  it  in  the  other.  In  the  last  place,  the  bellows  of  the 
opposite  arms  have  a  communication  by  means  of  a  canal, 
and  one  of  them  is  filled  with  quicksilver. 

"  These  things  being  supposed,  it  is  visible  that  the  bel- 
lows on  the  one  side  must  open,  and  those  on  the  other 
must  shut ;  consequently,  the  mercury  will  pass  from  the 
latter  into  the  former,  while  the  contrary  will  be  the  case 
on  the  opposite  side." 

Ozanam  natvely  adds  :  "  It  might  be  difficult  to  point 
out  the  deficiency  of  this  reasoning ;  but  those  acquainted 
with  the  true  principles  of  mechanics  will  not  hesitate  to 
bet  a  hundred  to  one,  that  the  machine,  when  constructed, 
will  not  answer  the  intended  purpose." 

That  this  bet  would  have  been  a  perfectly  safe  one  must 
be  quite  evident  to  any  person  who  has  the  slightest  knowl- 
edge of  practical  mechanics,  and  yet  the  fundamental  idea 
which  is  embodied  in  this  and  the  other  examples  which  we 
have  just  given,  forms  the  basis  of  almost  all  the  attempts 
which  have  been  made  to  produce  a  perpetual  motion  by 
purely  mechanical  means. 

The  hydrostatic  paradox  by  which  a  few  ounces  of  liquid 
may  apparently  balance  many  pounds,  or  even  tons,  has 
frequently  suggested  a  form  of  apparatus  designed  to  secure 
a  perpetual  motion.  Dr.  Arnott,  in  his  "  Elements  of  Phy- 
sics," relates  the  following  anecdote  :  "A  projector  thought 
that  the  vessel  of  his  contrivance,  represented  here  (Fig.  9), 
was  to  solve  the  renowned  problem  of  the  perpetual  mo- 
tion. It  was  goblet-shaped,  lessening  gradually  towards 
the  bottom  until  it  became  a  tube,  bent  upwards  at  c  and 
pointing  with  an  open  extremity  into  the  goblet  again.  He 


PERPETUAL  MOTION 


47 


reasoned  thus  :  A  pint  of  water  in  the  goblet  a  must  more 
than  counterbalance  an  ounce  which  the  tube  b  will  con- 
tain, and  must,  therefore,  be  constantly  pushing  the  ounce 
forward  into  the  vessel  again  at  a,  and  keeping  up  a  stream 
or  circulation,  which  will  cease  only  when  the  water  dries 


Fig.  9. 


up.     He  was  confounded  when  a  trial  showed  him  the 
same  level  in  a  and  in  b." 

This  suggestion  has  been  adopted  over  and  over  again  by 
sanguine  inventors.  Dircks,  in  his  "  Perpetuum  Mobile," 
tells  us  that  a  contrivance,  on  precisely  the  same  principle, 
was  proposed  by  the  Abbe"  de  la  Roque,  in  "Le  Journal 
des  Sgavans,"  Paris,  1686.  The  instrument  was  a  U  tube, 
one  leg  longer  than  the  other  and  bent  over,  so  that  any 
liquid  might  drop  into  the  top  end  of  the  short  leg,  which 
he  proposed  to  be  made  of  wax,  and  the  long  one  of  iron. 
Presuming  the  liquid  to  be  more  condensed  in  the  metal 
than  the  wax  tube,  it  would  flow  from  the  end  into  the  wax 
tube  and  so  continue. 


48  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

This  is  a  typical  case.  A  man  of  learning  and  of  high 
position  is  so  confident  that  his  theory  is  right  that  he  does 
not  think  it  worth  while  to  test  it  experimentally,  but 
rushes  into  print  and  immortalizes  himself  as  the  author 
of  a  blunder.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  this  absurd  invention 
will  do  more  to  perpetuate  his  name  than  all  his  learning 
and  real  achievements.  And  there  are  others  in  the  same 
predicament  —  circle-squarers  who,  a  quarter  of  a  century 
hence,  will  be  remembered  for  their  errors  when  all  else 
connected  with  them  will  be  forgotten. 

To  every  miller  whose  mill  ceased  working  for  want  of 
water,  the  idea  has  no  doubt  occurred  that  if  he  could  only 
pump  the  water  back  again  and  use  it  a  second  or  a  third 
time  he  might  be  independent  of  dry  or  wet  seasons.  Of 
course  no  practical  miller  was  ever  so  far  deluded  as  to 
attempt  to  put  such  a  suggestion  into  practice,  but  innu- 
merable machines  of  this  kind,  and  of  the  most  crude 
arrangement,  have  been  sketched  and  described  in  maga- 
zines and  papers.  Figures  of  wheels  driving  an  ordinary 
pump,  which  returns  to  an  elevated  reservoir  the  water 
which  has  driven  the  wheel,  are  so  common  that  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  reproduce  any  of  them.  In  the  following 
attempt,  however,  which  is  copied  from  Bishop  Wilkins' 
famous  book,  "Mathematical  Magic"  (1648),  the  well- 
known  Archimedean  screw  is  employed  instead  of  a  pump, 
and  the  na'fvete  of  the  good  bishop's  description  and  con- 
clusion are  well  worth  the  space  they  will  occupy. 

After  an  elaborate  description  of  the  screw,  he  says : 
"These  things,  considered  together,  it  will  hence  appear 
how  a  perpetual  motion  may  seem  easily  contrivable. 
For,  if  there  were  but  such  a  waterwheel  made  on  this 
instrument,  upon  which  the  stream  that  is  carried  up 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  49 

may  fall  in  its  descent,  it  would  turn  the  screw  round, 
and  by  that  means  convey  as  much  water  up  as  is  required 
to  move  it ;  so  that  the  motion  must  needs  be  continual 
since  the  same  weight  which  in  its  fall  does  turn  the  wheel, 
is,  by  the  turning  of  the  wheel,  carried  up  again.  Or,  if 
the  water,  falling  upon  one  wheel,  would  not  be  forcible 
enough  for  this  effect,  why  then  there  might  be  two,  or 
three,  or  more,  according  as  the  length  and  elevation  of  the 
instrument  will  admit;  by  which  means  the  weight  of  it 
may  be  so  multiplied  in  the  fall  that  it  shall  be  equivalent 
to  twice  or  thrice  that  quantity  of  water  which  ascends ; 
as  may  be  more  plainly  discerned  by  the  following  diagram 
(Fig.  10): 

"Where  the  figure  LM  at  the  bottom  does  represent  a 
wooden  cylinder  with  helical  cavities  cut  in  it,  which  at  AB 
is  supposed  to  be  covered  over  with  tin  plates,  and  three 
waterwheels,  upon  it,  HIK;  the  lower  cistern,  which 
contains  the  water,  being  CD.  Now,  this  cylinder  being 
turned  round,  all  the  water  which  from  the  cistern  ascends 
through  it,  will  fall  into  the  vessel  at  E,  and  from  that 
vessel  being  conveyed  upon  the  waterwheel  H,  shall  conse- 
quently give  a  circular  motion  to  the  whole  screw.  Or,  if 
this  alone  should  be  too  weak  for  the  turning  of  it,  then 
the  same  water  which  falls  from  the  wheel  H,  being  re- 
ceived into  the  other  vessel  F,  may  from  thence  again 
descend  on  the  wheel  I,  by  which  means  the  force  of  it 
will  be  doubled.  And  if  this  be  yet  insufficient,  then  may 
the  water,  which  falls  on  the  second  wheel  T,  be  received 
into  the  other  vessel  G,  and  from  thence  again  descend  on 
the  third  wheel  at  K  ;  and  so  for  as  many  other  wheels  as 
the  instrument  is  capable  of.  So  that  besides  the  greater 
distance  of  these  three  streams  from  the  center  or  axis  by 


50  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

which  they  are  made  so  much  heavier;  and  besides  that 
the  fall  of  this  outward  water  is  forcible  and  violent, 
whereas  the  ascent  of  that  within  is  natural — besides  all 
this,  there  is  twice  as  much  water  to  turn  the  screw  as  is 
carried  up  by  it. 


Fig.  10. 


"But,  on  the  other  side,  if  all  the  water  falling  upon  one 
wheel  would  be  able  to  turn  it  round,  then  half  of  it  would 
serve  with  two  wheels,  and  the  rest  may  be  so  disposed  of 
in  the  fall  as  to  serve  unto  some  other  useful,  delightful 
ends, 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  5! 

"When  I  first  thought  of  this  invention,  I  could  scarce 
forbear,  with  Archimedes,  to  cry  out  '  Eureka !  Eureka ! ' 
it  seeming  so  infallible  a  way  for  the  effecting  of  a  per- 
petual motion  that  nothing  could  be  so  much  as  probably 
objected  against  it;  but,  upon  trial  and  experience,  I  find  it 
altogether  insufficient  for  any  such  purpose,  and  that  for 
these  two  reasons : 

1.  The  water  that  ascends  will  not  make  any  considera- 
ble stream  in  the  fall. 

2.  This  stream,  though  multiplied,  will  not  be  of  force 
enough  to  turn  about  the  screw." 

How  well  it  would  have  been  for  many  of  those  inven- 
tors, who  supposed  that  they  had  discovered  a  successful 
perpetual  motion,  if  they  had  only  given  their  contrivances 
a  fair  and  unprejudiced  test  as  did  the  good  old  bishop! 

A  modification  of  this  device,  in  which  mercury  is  used 
instead  of  water,  is  thus  described  by  a  correspondent  of 
"The  Mechanic's  Magazine."  (London.) 

"In  Fig.  n,  A  is  the  screw  turning  on  its  two  pivots 
GG;  B  is  a  cistern  to  be  filled  above  the  level  of  the  lower 
aperture  of  the  screw  with  mercury,  which  I  conceive  to  be 
preferable  to  water  on  many  accounts,  and  principally  be- 
cause it  does  not  adhere  or  evaporate  like  water;  c  is  a 
reservoir,  which,  when  the  screw  is  turned  round,  receives 
the  mercury  which  falls  from  the  top ;  there  is  a  pipe,  which, 
by  the  force  of  gravity,  conveys  the  mercury  from  the 
reservoir  c  on  to  (what  for  want  of  a  better  term  may  be 
called)  the  float-board  E,  fixed  at  right  angles  to  the  center 
[axis]  of  the  screw,  and  furnished  at  its  circumference  with 
ridges  or  floats  to  intercept  the  mercury,  the  moment  and 
weight  of  which  will  cause  the  float-board  and  screw  to  re- 
volve, until,  by  the  proper  inclination  of  the  floats,  the 
mercury  falls  into  the  receiver  F,  from  whence  it  again  falls 
by  its  spout  into  the  cistern  G,  where  the  constant  revolu- 
tion of  the  screw  takes  it  up  again  as  before." 


52  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

He  then  suggests  some  difficulties  which  the  ball,  seen 
just  under  the  letter  E,  is  intended  to  overcome,  but  he 
confesses  that  he  has  never  tried  it,  and  to  any  practical 
mechanic  it  is  very  obvious  that  the  machine  will  not  work. 


Fig.  ii. 


But  we  give  the  description  in  the  language  of  the  inventor, 
as  a  fair  type  of  this  class  of  perpetual-motion  machines. 

In  the  year  1790  a  Doctor  Schweirs  took  out  a  patent 
for  a  machine  in  which  small  metal  balls  were  used  instead 
of  a  liquid,  and  they  were  raised  by  a  sort  of  chain  pump 
which  delivered  them  upon  the  circumference  of  a  large 
wheel,  which  was  thus  caused  to  revolve.  It  was  claimed 
for  this  invention  that  it  kept  going  for  some  months,  but 
any  mechanic  who  will  examine  the  Doctor's  drawing  must 
see  that  it  could  not  have  continued  in  motion  after  the 
initial  impulse  had  been  expended. 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  53 

That  property  of  liquids  known  as  capillary  attraction 
has  been  frequently  called  to  the  aid  of  perpetual-motion 
seekers,  and  the  fact  that  although  water  will,  in  capillary 
tubes  and  sponges,  rise  several  inches  above  the  general 
level,  it  will  not  overflow,  has  been  a  startling  surprise  to 
the  would-be  inventors.  Perhaps  the  most  notable  instance 
of  a  mistake  of  this  kind  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  famous 
Sir  William  Congreve,  the  inventor  of  the  military  rockets 
that  bore  his  name,  and  the  author  of  certain  improvements 
in  matches  which  were  called  after  him.  It  was  thus  de- 
scribed and  figured  in  an  article  which  appeared  in  the 
"Atlas"  (London)  and  was  copied  into  "The  Mechanic's 
Magazine"  (London)  for  1827: 

"  The  celebrated  Boyle  entertained  an  idea  that  perpetual 
motion  might  be  obtained  by  means  of  capillary  attraction; 
and,  indeed,  there  seems  but  little  doubt  that  nature  has 
employed  this  force  in  many  instances  to  produce  this  effect. 

"  There  are  many  situations  in  which  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  sources  of  springs  on  the  tops 
and  sides  of  mountains  depend  on  the  accumulation  of 
water  created  at  certain  elevations  by  the  operation  of 
capillary  attraction,  acting  in  large  masses  of  porous  ma- 
terial, or  through  laminated  substances.  These  masses 
being  saturated,  in  process  of  time  become  the  sources  of 
springs  and  the  heads  of  rivers;  and  thus  by  an  endless 
round  of  ascending  and  descending  waters,  form,  on  the 
great  scale  of  nature,  an  incessant  cause  of  perpetual 
motion,  in  the  purest  acceptance  of  the  term,  and  precisely 
on  the  principle  that  was  contemplated  by  Boyle.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  any  imitation  of  this  process  on 
the  limited  scale  practicable  by  human  art  would  not  be 
of  sufficient  magnitude  to  be  effective.  Nature,  by  the 
immensity  of  her  operations,  is  able  to  allow  for  a  slowness 
of  process  which  would  baffle  the  attempts  of  man  in  any 
direct  and  simple  imitation  of  her  works.  Working,  there- 
fore, upon  the  same  causes,  he  finds  himself  obliged  to 
take  a  more  complicated  mode  to  produce  the  same  effect. 


54 


THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 


"  To  amuse  the  hours  of  a  long  confinement  from  illness, 
Sir  William  Congreve  has  recently  contrived  a  scheme  of 
perpetual  motion,  founded  on  this  principle  of  capillary  at- 
traction, which,  it  is  apprehended,  will  not  be  subject  to 
the  general  refutation  applicable  to  those  plans  in  which 
the  power  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  gravity  only. 
Sir  William's  perpetual  motion  is  as  follows: 

"  Let  ABC,  Fig.  12,  be  three  horizontal  rollers  fixed  in 
a  frame;  aaa,  etc.,  is  an  endless  band  of  sponge,  running 
round  these  rollers;  and  bbb,  etc.,  is  an  endless  chain  of 
weights,  surrounding  the  band  of  sponge,  and  attached 


to  it,  so  that  they  must  move  together;  every  part  of  this 
band  and  chain  being  so  accurately  uniform  in  weight  that 
the  perpendicular  side  AB  will,  in  all  positions  of  the  band 
and  chain,  be  in  equilibrium  with  the  hypothenuse  AC,  on 
the  principle  of  the  inclined  plane.  Now,  if  the  frame  in 
which  these  rollers  are  fixed  be  placed  in  a  cistern  of  water, 
having  its  lower  part  immersed  therein,  so  that  the  water's 
edge  cuts  the  upper  part  of  the  rollers  BC,  then,  if  the 
weight  and  quantity  of  the  endless  chain  be  duly  propor- 
tioned to  the  thickness  and  breadth  of  the  band  of  sponge, 
the  band  and  chain  will,  on  the  water  in  the  cistern  being 
brought  to  the  proper  level,  begin  to  move  round  the  rollers 
in  the  direction  AB,  by  the  force  of  capillary  attraction, 
and  will  continue  so  to  move.  The  process  is  as  follows : 


PERPETUAL   MOTION  55 

"  On  the  side  AB  of  the  triangle,  the  weights  bbb,  etc., 
hanging  perpendicularly  alongside  the  band  of  sponge,  the 
band  is  not  compressed  by  them,  and  its  pores  being  left 
open,  the  water  at  the  point  x,  at  which  the  band  meets  its 
surface,  will  rise  to  a  certain  height  y,  above  its  level,  and 
thereby  create  a  load,  which  load  will  not  exist  on  the  as- 
cending side  CA,  because  on  this  side  the  chain  of  weights 
compresses  the  band  at  the  water's  edge,  and  squeezes  out 
any  water  that  may  have  previously  accumulated  hi  it;  so 
that  the  band  rises  in  a  dry  state,  the  weight  of  the  chain 
having  been  so  proportioned  to  the  breadth  and  thickness 
of  the  band  as  to  be  sufficient  to  produce  this  effect.  The 
load,  therefore,  on  the  descending  side  AB,  not  being  op- 
posed by  any  similar  load  on  the  ascending  side,  and  the 
equilibrium  of  the  other  parts  not  being  disturbed  by  the 
alternate  expansion  and  compression  of  the  sponge,  the 
band  will  begin  to  move  in  the  direction  AB;  and  as  it 
moves  downwards,  the  accumulation  of  water  will  continue 
to  rise,  and  thereby  carry  on  a  constant  motion,  provided 
the  load  at  xy  be  sufficient  to  overcome  the  friction  on  the 
rollers  ABC. 

"  Now  to  ascertain  the  quantity  of  this  load  in  any  par- 
ticular machine,  it  must  be  stated  that  it  is  found  by  ex- 
periment that  the  water  will  rise  in  a  fine  sponge  about  an 
inch  above  its  level;  if,  therefore,  the  band  and  sponge  be 
one  foot  thick  and  six  feet  broad,  the  area  of  its  horizontal 
section  in  contact  with  the  water  would  be  864  square 
inches,  and  the  weight  of  the  accumulation  of  water  raised 
by  the  capillary  attraction  being  one  inch  rise  upon  864 
square  inches,  would  be  30  lb.,  which,  it  is  conceived,  would 
be  much  more  than  equivalent  to  the  friction  of  the  rollers." 

The  article,  inspired  no  doubt  by  Sir  William,  then  goes 
on  to  give  elaborate  reasons  for  the  success  of  the  device, 
but  all  these  are  met  by  the  damning  fact  that  the  machine 
never  worked.  Some  time  afterwards  Sir  William,  at 
considerable  expense,  published  a  pamphlet  in  which  he 
explained  and  defended  his  views.  If  he  had  only  had  a 
working  model  made  and  the  thing  had  continued  in  motion 


56  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

for  a  few  hours,  he  would  have  silenced  all  objectors  far 
more  quickly  and  forcibly  than  he  ever  could  have  done 
by  any  amount  of  argument. 

And  in  his  case  there  could  have  been  no  excuse  for 
his  not  making  a  small  machine  after  the  plans  that  he 
published  and  even  patented.  He  was  wealthy  and  could 
have  commanded  the  services  of  the  best  mechanics  in 
London,  but  no  working  model  was  ever  made.  Many  in- 
ventors of  perpetual-motion  machines  offer  their  poverty 
as  an  excuse  for  not  making  a  model  or  working  machine. 
Thus  Dircks,  in  his  "  Perpetuum  Mobile  "  gives  an  account 
of  "a  mechanic,  a  model  maker,  who  had  a  neat  brass 
model  of  a  time-piece,  in  which  were  two  steel  balls  A  and 
B  ;  —  B  to  fall  into  a  semicircular  gallery  C,  and  be  car- 
ried to  the  end  D  of  a  straight  trough  DE ;  while  A  in  its 
turn  rolls  to  E,  and  so  on  continuously ;  only  the  gallery  C 
not  being  screwed  in  its  place,  we  are  desired  to  take  the 
will  for  the  deed,  until  twenty  shillings  be  raised  to  com- 
plete this  part  of  the  work !  " 

And  Mr.  Dircks  also  quotes  from  the  "Builder"  of 
June,  1847  :  "  This  vain  delusion,  if  not  still  in  force,  is  at 
least  as  standing  a  fallacy  as  ever.  Joseph  Hutt,  a  frame- 
work knitter,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  enlightened  town 
of  Hinckley,  professes  to  have  discovered  it  [perpetual 
motion]  and  only  wants  twenty  pounds,  as  usual,  to  set  it 
agoing." 

The  following  rather  curious  arrangement  was  described 
in  "The  Mechanic's  Magazine"  for  1825. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  offer  the  prefixed  device.  The  point  at 
which,  like  all  the  rest,  it  fails,  I  confess  I  did  not  (as  I 
do  now)  plainly  perceive  at  once,  although  it  is  certainly 
very  obvious.  The  original  idea  was  this  —  to  enable  a 


PERPETUAL   MOTION  57 

body  which  would  float  in  a  heavy  medium  and  sink  in  a 
lighter  one,  to  pass  successively  through  the  one  to  the 
other,  the  continuation  of  which  would  be  the  end  in  view. 
To  say  that  valves  cannot  be  made  to  act  as  proposed  will 
not  be  to  show  the  rationale  (if  I  may  so  say)  upon  which 
the  idea  is  fallacious." 

The  figure  is  supposed  to  be  tubular,  and  made  of  glass, 
for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the  action  of  the  balls  inside, 
which  float  or  fall  as  they  travel  from  air  through  water 
and  from  water  through  air.  'The  foot  is  supposed  to  be 
placed  in  water,  but  it  would  answer  the  same  purpose  if 
the  bottom  were  closed. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  ENGRAVING,  FIG.  13.  No.  i,  the 
left  leg,  filled  with  water  from  B  to  A.  2  and  3,  valves, 
having  in  their  centers  very  small  projecting  valves  ;  they 
all  open  upwards.  4,  the  right  leg,  containing  air  from 
A  to  F.  5  and  6,  valves,  having  very  small  ones  in  their 
centers;  they  all  open  downwards.  The  whole  apparatus 
is  supposed  to  be  air  and  water-tight.  The  round  figures 
represent  hollow  balls,  which  will  sink  one-fourth  of  their 
bulk  in  water  (of  course  will  fall  in  air) ;  the  weight  there- 
fore of  three  balls  resting  upon  one  ball  in  water,  as  at  E, 
will  just  bring  its  top  even  with  the  water's  edge ;  the 
weight  of  four  balls  will  sink  it  under  the  surface  until  the 
ball  immediately  over  it  is  one-fourth  its  bulk  in  water, 
when  the  under  ball  will  escape  round  the  corner  at  C, 
and  begin  to  ascend. 

"The  machine  is  supposed  (in  the  figure)  to  be  in 
action,  and  No.  8  (one  of  the  balls)  to  have  just  escaped 
round  the  corner  at  C,  and  to  be,  by  its  buoyancy,  rising 
up  to  valve  No.  3,  striking  first  the  small  projecting  valve 
in  the  center,  which  when  opened,  the  large  one  will  be 


58  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

raised  by  the  buoyancy  of  the  ball ;  because  the  moment 
the  small  valve  in  the  center  is  opened  (although  only  the 
size  of  a  pin's  head),  No.  2  valve  will  have  taken  upon  it- 
self to  sustain  the  whole  column  of  water  from  A  to  B. 
The  said  ball  (No.  8)  having  passed  through  the  valve 


Fig.  13. 

No.  3,  will,  by  appropriate  weights  or  springs,  close ;  the 
ball  will  proceed  upwards  to  the  next  valve  (No.  2),  and 
perform  the  same  operation  there.  Having  arrived  at  A, 
it  will  float  upon  the  surface  three-fourths  of  its  bulk  out 
of  water.  Upon  another  ball  in  due  course  arriving  under 
it,  it  will  be  lifted  quite  out  of  the  water,  and  fall  over  the 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  59 

point  D,  pass  into  the  right  leg  (containing  air),  and  fall  to 
valve  No.  5,  strike  and  open  the  small  valve  in  its  center, 
then  open  the  large  one,  and  pass  through ;  this  valve  will 
then,  by  appropriate  weights  or  springs,  close ;  the  ball  will 
roll  on  through  the  bent  tube  (which  is  made  in  that  form 
to  gain  time  as  well  as  to  exhibit  motion)  to  the  next  valve 
(No.  6),  where  it  will  perform  the  same  operation,  and 
then,  falling  upon  the  four  balls  at  E,  force  the  bottom  one 
round  the  corner  at  C.  This  ball  will  proceed  as  did  No. 
8,  and  the  rest  in  the  same  manner  successively." 

That  an  ordinary  amateur  mechanic  should  be  misled  by 
such  arguments  is  perhaps  not  so  surprising,  when  we  re- 
member that  the  famous  John  Bernoulli  claimed  to  have 
invented  a  perpetual  motion  based  on  the  difference  be- 
tween the  specific  gravities  of  two  liquids.  A  translation 
of  the  original  Latin  may  be  found  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  Vol.  XVIII,  page  555.  Some  of  the  premises 
on  which  he  depends  are,  however,  impossibilities,  and 
Professor  Chrystal  concludes  his  notice  of  the  invention 
thus  :  "  One  really  is  at  a  loss  with  Bernoulli's  wonderful 
theory,  whether  to  admire  most  the  conscientious  state- 
ment of  the  hypothesis,  the  prim  logic  of  the  demonstra- 
tion —  so  carefully  cut  according  to  the  pattern  of  the 
ancients  —  or  the  weighty  superstructure  built  on  so  frail 
a  foundation.  Most  of  our  perpetual  motions  were  clearly 
the  result  of  too  little  learning ;  surely  this  one  was  the 
product  of  too  much/' 

A  more  simple  device  was  suggested  recently  by  a  cor- 
respondent of  "Power."  He  describes  it  thus  : 

The  J-shaped  tube  A,  Fig.  14,  is  open  at  both  ends, 
but  tapers  at  the  lower  end,  as  shown.  A  well-greased 
cotton  rope  C  passes  over  the  wheel  B  and  through  the 


6o 


THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 


small  opening  of  the  tube  with  practically  little  or  no  fric- 
tion, and  also  without  leakage.     The  tube  is  then  filled  with 
water.     The  rope  above  the  line  WX  balances  over  the 
pulley,  and  so  does  that  below  the  line  YZ .     The  rope  in 


Fig.  14. 

the  tube  between  these  lines  is  lifted  by  the  water,  while 
the  rope  on  the  other  side  of  the  pulley  between  these  lines 
is  pulled  downward  by  gravity. 

The  inventor  offers  the  above  suggestion  rather  as  a 
kind  of  puzzle  than  as  a  sober  attempt  to  solve  the  famous 
problem,  and  he  concludes  by  asking  why  it  will  not  work  ? 

In  addition  to  the  usual  resistance  or  friction  offered  by 
the  air  to  all  motion,  there  are  four  drawbacks  : 

1.  The  friction  in  its  bearings  of  the  axle  of  the  wheel  B. 

2.  The  power  required  to  bend  and  unbend  the  rope. 

3.  The  friction  of  the  rope  in  passing  through  the  water 
from  z  to  x  and  its  tendency  to  raise  a  portion  of  the  water 
above  the  level  of  the  water  at  x. 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  6l 

4.  The  friction  at  the  point  y,  this  last  being  the  most 
serious  of  all.  An  "  opening  of  the  tube  with  practically 
little  or  no  friction,  and  also  without  leakage  "  is  a  mechan- 
ical impossibility.  In  order  to  have  the  joint  water-tight, 
the  tube  must  hug  the  rope  very  tightly  and  this  would 
make  friction  enough  to  prevent  any  motion.  And  the 
longer  the  column  of  water  xz,  the  greater  will  be  the  ten- 
dency to  leak,  and  consequently  the  tighter  must  be  the 
joint  and  the  greater  the  friction  thereby  created. 

A  favorite  idea  with  perpetual-motion  seekers  is  the 
utilization  of  the  force  of  magnetism.  Some  time  prior  to 
the  year  1 5  79,  Joannes  Taisnierus  wrote  a  book  which  is 
now  in  the  British  Museum  and  in  which  considerable 
space  is  devoted  to  "  Continual  Motions "  and  to  the 
solving  of  this  problem  by  magnetism.  Bishop  Wil- 
kins  in  his  "  Mathematical  Magick  "  describes  one  of  the 
many  devices  which  have  been  invented  with  this  end 
in  view.  He  says  :  "  But  amongst  all  these  kinds  of  inven- 
tion, that  is  most  likely,  wherein  a  loadstone  is  so  disposed 
that  it  shall  draw  unto  it  on  a  reclined  plane  a  bullet  of 
steel,  which  steel  as  it  ascends  near  to  the  loadstone,  may 
be  contrived  to  fall  down  through  some  hole  in  the  plane, 
and  so  to  return  unto  the  place  from  whence  at  first  it 
began  to  move ;  and,  being  there,  the  loadstone  will  again 
attract  it  upwards  till  coming  to  this  hole,  it  will  fall  down 
again  ;  and  so  the  motion  shall  be  perpetual,  as  may  be 
more  easily  conceivable  by  this  figure  (Fig.  15)  : 

"  Suppose  the  loadstone  to  be  represented  at  AB,  which, 
though  it  have  not  strength  enough  to  attract  the  bullet 
C  directly  from  the  ground,  yet  may  do  it  by  the  help  of 
the  plane  EF.  Now,  when  the  bullet  is  come  to  the  top 
of  this  plane,  its  own  gravity  (which  is  supposed  to  exceed 


62 


THE    SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 


the  strength  of  the  loadstone)  will  make  it  fall  into  that 
hole  at  E;  and  the  force  it  receives  in  this  fall  will  carry  it 
with  such  a  violence  unto  the  other  end  of  this  arch,  that 
it  will  open  the  passage  which  is  there  made  for  it,  and  by 
its  return  will  again  shut  it ;  so  that  the  bullet  (as  at  the 


Fig.  15- 

first)  is  in  the  same  place  whence  it  was  attracted,  and, 
consequently  must  move  perpetually." 

Notwithstanding  the  positiveness  of  the  "  must  "  at  the 
close  of  his  description,  it  is  very  obvious  to  any  practical 
mechanic  that  the  machine  will  not  move  at  all,  far  less 
move  perpetually,  and  the  bishop  himself,  after  carefully 
and  conscientiously  discussing  the  objections,  comes  to  the 
same  conclusion.  He  ends  by  saying  :  "  So  that  none  of 
all  these  magnetical  experiments,  which  have  been  as  yet 
discovered,  are  sufficient  for  the  effecting  of  a  perpetual 
motion,  though  these  kind  of  qualities  seem  most  conduci- 
ble  unto  it,  and  perhaps  hereafter  it  may  be  contrived  from 
them." 

It  has  occurred  to  several  would-be  inventors  of  perpet- 
ual motion  that  if  some  substance  could  be  found  which 
would  prevent  the  passage  of  the  magnetic  force,  then  by 
interposing  a  plate  of  this  material  at  the  proper  moment, 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  63 

between  the  magnet  and  the  piece  of  iron  to  be  attracted, 
a  perpetual  motion  might  be  obtained.  Several  inventors 
have  claimed  that  they  had  discovered  such  a  non-conduct- 
ing substance,  but  it  is  needless  to  say  that  their  claims 
had  no  foundation  in  fact,  and  if  they  had  discovered  anything 
of  the  kind,  it  would  have  required  just  as  much  force  to 
interpose  it  as  would  have  been  gained  by  the  interposi- 
tion. It  has  been  fully  proved  that  in  every  case  where  a 
machine  was  made  to  work  apparently  by  the  interposition 
of  such  a  material,  a  fraud  was  perpetrated  and  the  machine 
was  really  made  to  move  by  means  of  some  concealed 
springs  or  weights. 

A  correspondent  of  the  "  Mechanic's  Magazine  "  (Vol.  xii, 
London,  1829),  gives  the  following  curious  design  for  a 
"  Self -moving  Railway  Carriage."  He  describes  it  as  a 
machine  which,  were  it  possible  to  make  its  parts  hold  to- 
gether unimpaired  by  rotation  or  the  ravages  of  time,  and 
to  give  it  a  path  encircling  the  earth,  would  assuredly  con- 
tinue to  roll  along  in  one  undeviating  course  until  time 
shall  be  no  more. 

A  series  of  inclined  planes  are  to  be  erected  in  such  a 
manner  that  a  cone  will  ascend  one  (its  sides  forming  an 
acute  angle),  and  being  raised  to  the  summit,  descend  on 
the  next  (having  parallel  sides),  at  the  foot  of  which  it 
must  rise  on  a  third  and  fall  on  a  fourth,  and  so  continue 
to  do  alternately  throughout. 

The  diagram,  Fig.  16,  is  the  section  of  a  carriage  A, 
with  broad  conical  wheels  a,  a,  resting  on  the  inclined  plane 
b.  The  entrance  to  the  carriage  is  from  above,  and  there  are 
ample  accommodations  for  goods  and  passengers.  "  The 
most  singular  property  of  this  contrivance  is,  that  its  speed 
increases  the  more  it  is  laden ;  and  when  checked  on  any 


64  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

part  of  the  road,  it  will,  when  the  cause  of  stoppage  is  re- 
moved, proceed  on  its  journey  by  mere  power  of  gravity. 
Its  path  may  be  a  circular  road  formed  of  the  inclined 
planes.  But  to  avoid  a  circuitous  route,  a  double  road 
ought  to  be  made.  The  carriage  not  having  a  retrograde 
motion  on  the  inclined  planes,  a  road  to  set  out  upon,  and 
another  to  return  by,  are  indispensable." 


Fig.  16. 

How  any  one  could  ever  imagine  that  such  a  contrivance 
would  ever  continue  in  motion  for  even  a  short  time, 
except,  perhaps,  on  the  famous  decensus  averni,  must  be  a 
puzzle  to  every  sane  mechanic.  I  therefore  give  it  as 
a  climax  to  the  absurdities  which  have  been  proposed  in 
sober  earnest.  As  a  fitting  close,  however,  to  this  chapter 
of  human  folly,  I  give  the  following  joke  from  the  "  Penny 
Magazine,"  published  by  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of 
Useful  Knowledge. 

"  *  Father,  I  have  invented  a  perpetual  motion ! '  said  a 
little  fellow  of  eight  years  old.  *  It  is  thus :  I  would  make 
a  great  wheel,  and  fix  it  up  like  a  water-wheel;  at  the  top 
I  would  hang  a  great  weight,  and  at  the  bottom  I  would 
hang  a  number  of  little  weights;  then  the  great  weight 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  6$ 

would  turn  the  wheel  half  round  and  sink  to  the  bottom, 
because  it  is  so  heavy:  and  when  the  little  weights  reach 
the  top  they  would  sink  down,  because  they  are  so  many; 
and  thus  the  wheel  would  turn  round  for  ever.' 

The  child's  fallacy  is  a  type  of  all  the  blunders  which 
are  made  on  this  subject.  Follow  a  projector  in  his 
description,  and  if  it  be  not  perfectly  unintelligible,  which 
it  often  is,  it  always  proves  that  he  expects  to  find  certain 
of  his  movements  alternately  strong  and  weak  —  not 
according  to  the  laws  of  nature  —  but  according  to  the 
wants  of  his  mechanism. 

2.   FALLACIES 

Fallacies  are  distinguished  from  absurdities  on  the  one 
hand  and  from  frauds  on  the  other,  by  the  fact  that  with- 
out any  intentionally  fraudulent  contrivances  on  the  part 
of  the  inventor,  they  seem  to  produce  results  which  have 
a  tendency  to  afford  to  certain  enthusiasts  a  basis  of  hope 
in  the  direction  of  perpetual  motion,  although  usually  not 
under  that  name,  for  that  is  always  explicitly  disclaimed  by 
the  promoters. 

The  most  notable  instance  of  this  class  in  recent  times 
was  the  application  of  liquid  air  as  a  source  of  power,  the 
claim  having  been  actually  made  by  some  of  the  advocates 
of  this  fallacy  that  a  steamship  starting  from  New  York 
with  1000  gallons  of  liquid  air,  could  not  only  cross  the 
Atlantic  at  full  speed  but  could  reach  the  other  side  with 
more  than  1000  gallons  of  liquid  air  on  board  —  the  power 
required  to  drive  the  vessel  and  to  liquefy  the  surplus  air 
being  all  obtained  during  the  passage  by  utilizing  the 
original  quantity  of  liquid  air  that  had  been  furnished  in 
the  first  place. 


66  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

That  this  was  equivalent  to  perpetual  motion,  pure  and 
simple,  was  obvious  even  to  those  who  were  least  familiar 
with  such  subjects,  though  the  idea  of  calling  it  perpetual 
motion  was  sternly  repudiated  by  all  concerned  —  the  term 
"perpetual  motion"  having  become  thoroughly  offensive 
to  the  ears  of  common-sense  people,  and  consequently 
tending  to  cast  doubt  over  any  enterprise  to  which  it 
might  be  applied. 

That  liquid  air  is  a  real  and  wonderful  discovery,  and 
that  for  a  certain  small  range  of  purposes  it  will  prove 
highly  useful,  cannot  be  doubted  by  those  who  have  seen 
and  handled  it  and  are  familiar  with  its  properties,  but  that 
it  will  ever  be  successfully  used  as  an  economical  source 
of  mechanical  power  is,  to  say  the  least,  very  improbable. 
That  a  small  quantity  of  the  liquid  is  capable  of  doing  an 
enormous  amount  of  work,  and  that  under  some  conditions 
there  is  apparently  more  power  developed  than  was  origin- 
ally required  to  liquefy  the  air,  is  undoubtedly  true,  but 
when  a  careful  quantitative  examination  is  made  of  the 
outgo  and  the  income  of  energy,  it  will  be  found  in  this, 
as  in  every  similar  case,  that  instead  of  a  gain  there  is  a 
very  decided  and  serious  loss.  The  correct  explanation  of 
the  fallacy  was  published  in  the  "  Scientific  American,"  by 
the  late  Dr.  Henry  Morton,  president  of  the  Stevens 
Institute,  and  the  same  explanation  and  exposure  were 
made  by  the  writer,  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  in  the  case  of 
a  very  similar  enterprise.  The  form  of  the  fallacy  in  both 
cases  is  so  similar  and  so  interesting  that  I  shall  make  no 
apology  for  giving  the  details. 

About  the  year  1853  or  1854,  two  ingenious  mechanics 
of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  conceived  the  idea  that  by  using  some 
liquid  more  volatile  than  water,  a  great  saving  might  be 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  67 

effected  in  the  cost  of  running  an  engine.  At  that  time 
gasolene  and  benzine  were  unknown  in  commerce,  and  the 
same  was  true  in  regard  to  bisulphide  of  carbon,  but  as 
the  process  of  manufacturing  the  latter  was  simple  and  the 
sources  of  supply  were  cheap  and  apparently  unlimited,  they 
adopted  that  liquid.  The  name  of  one  of  these  inventors 
was  Hughes  and  that  of  the  other  was  Hill,  and  it  would 
seem  that  each  had  made  the  invention  independently  of 
the  other.  They  had  a  fierce  conflict  over  the  patent,  but 
this  does  not  concern  us  except  to  this  extent,  that  the 
records  of  the  case  may  therefore  be  found  in  the  archives 
of  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington,  D.C.  Hughes  was 
backed  by  the  wealth  of  a  well-known  lawyer  of  Rochester, 
whose  son  subsequently  occupied  a  high  office  in  the  state 
of  New  York,  and  he  constructed  a  beautiful  little  steam- 
engine  and  boiler,  made  of  the  very  finest  materials  and 
with  such  skill  and  accuracy  that  it  gave  out  a  very  consid- 
erable amount  of  power  in  proportion  to  its  size.  The 
source  of  heat  was  a  series  of  lamps,  fed,  I  think,  with 
lard  oil  (this  was  before  the  days  of  kerosene),  and  the  ex- 
hibition test  consisted  in  first  filling  the  boiler  with  water, 
and  noting  the  time  that  it  took  to  get  up  a  certain  steam 
pressure  as  shown  by  the  gage.  After  this  test,  bisulphide 
of  carbon  was  added  to  the  water,  and  the  time  and  pres- 
sure were  noted.  The  difference  was  of  course  remark- 
able, and  altogether  in  favor  of  the  new  liquid.  The 
exhaust  was  carried  into  a  vessel  of  cold  water  and  as  bi- 
sulphide of  carbon  is  very  easily  condensed  and  very  heavy, 
almost  the  entire  quantity  used  was  recovered  and  used 
over  and  over  again. 

But  to  the  uninstructed  onlooker,  the  most  remarkable 
part  of  the  exhibition  was  when  the  steam  pressure  was  so 


68  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

far  lowered  that  the  engine  revolved  very  slowly,  and  then, 
on  a  little  bisulphide  being  injected  into  the  boiler,  the 
pressure  would  at  once  rise,  and  the  engine  would  work 
with  great  rapidity.  This  seemed  almost  like  magic. 

The  same  experiment  was  tried  on  an  engine  of  twelve 
horse-power,  and  with  a  like  result.  When  the  steam 
pressure  had  fallen  so  far  that  the  engine  began  to  move 
quite  slowly,  a  quantity  of  the  bisulphide  would  be  injected 
into  the  boiler  and  the  pressure  would  at  once  rise,  the 
engine  would  move  with  renewed  vigor,  and  the  fly-wheel 
would  revolve  with  startling  velocity.  All  this  was  seen 
over  and  over  again  by  myself  and  others.  At  that  time 
the  writer,  then  quite  a  young  man,  had  just  recovered 
from  a  very  severe  illness  and  was  making  a  living  by 
teaching  mechanical  drawing  and  making  drawings  for  in- 
ventors and  others,  and  in  the  course  of  business  he  was 
brought  into  contact  with  some  parties  who  thought  of  in- 
vesting in  the  new  and  apparently  wonderful  invention. 
They  employed  him  to  examine  it  and  give  an  opinion  as 
to  its  value.  After  careful  consideration  and  as  thorough 
a  calculation  as  the  data  then  at  command  would  allow,  he 
showed  his  clients  that  the  tests  which  had  been  exhibited 
to  them  proved  nothing,  and  that  if  a  clear  proof  of  the 
value  of  the  invention  was  to  be  given,  it  must  be  after  a 
run  of  many  hours  and  not  of  a  few  minutes,  and  against 
a  properly  adjusted  load,  the  amount  of  which  had  been 
carefully  ascertained.  This  test  was  never  made,  or  if 
made  the  results  were  not  communicated  to  the  prospec- 
tive purchasers  ;  the  negotiations  fell  through,  and  the  in- 
vention which  was  to  have  revolutionized  our  mechanical 
industries  fell  into  "innocuous  desuetude." 

That  the  inventors  were  honest  I  have  no  doubt.     They 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  69 

were  themselves  deceived  when  they  saw  the  engine  start 
off  with  tremendous  velocity  as  soon  as  a  little  bisulphide 
of  carbon  was  injected  into  the  boiler,  and  they  failed  to 
see  that  this  spurt,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  was  simply 
due  to  a  draft  upon  capital  previously  stored  up.  The 
capacity  of  bisulphide  of  carbon  for  heat  is  quite  low,  when 
compared  with  that  of  water ;  its  vaporizing  point  is  also 
much  lower  and  consequently,  an  ordinary  boiler  full  of 
hot  water  contains  enough  heat  to  vaporize  a  considerable 
quantity  of  bisulphide  of  carbon  at  a  pretty  high  pressure. 
In  even  a  still  greater  measure  the  same  is  true  of  liquid 
air,  and  this  was  the  underlying  fallacy  in  the  case  of  the 
tests  made  with  liquid-air  motors. 

3.  FRAUDS 

But  while  the  inventors  of  these  schemes  may  have  been 
honest,  there  is  another  class  who  deliberately  set  out  to 
perpetrate  a  fraud.  Their  machines  work,  and  work  well, 
but  there  is  always  some  concealed  source  of  power,  which 
causes  them  to  move.  As  a  general  rule,  such  inventors 
form  a  company  or  corporation  of  unlimited  "  lie-ability,"  as 
De  Morgan  phrases  it,  and  then  they  proceed  by  means  of 
flaring  prospectuses  and  liberal  advertising,  to  gather  in 
the  dupes  who  are  attracted  by  their  seductive  promises 
of  enormous  returns  for  a  very  small  outlay.  Perhaps  the 
most  widely  known  of  these  fraudulent  schemes  of  recent 
years  was  the  notorious  Keeley  motor,  the  originator  of 
which  managed  to  hoodwink  a  respectable  old  lady,  and  to 
draw  from  her  enormous  supplies  of  cash.  At  his  death, 
however,  the  absolutely  fraudulent  nature  of  his  contri- 
vances was  fully  disclosed,  and  nothing  more  has  been 


70  THE    SEVEN   FOLLIES    OF   SCIENCE 

heard  of  his  alleged  discovery.  But,  while  he  lived  and 
was  able  to  put  forward  claims  based  upon  some  apparent 
results,  he  found  plenty  of  fools  who  accepted  the  idea  that 
there  is  nothing  impossible  to  science. 

It  is  true  that  the  Keeley  motor  was  examined  by  sev- 
eral committees  and  some  very  respectable  gentlemen  acted 
in  such  a  way  as  to  give  a  seeming  endorsement  of  the 
scheme,  but  it  must  not  be  supposed  for  an  instant  that 
any  well-educated  engineers  and  scientific  men  were  de- 
ceived by  Mr.  Keeley's  nonsense.  The  very  fact  that  he 
refused  to  allow  a  complete  examination  of  his  machine  by 
intelligent  practical  men,  ought  to  have  been  enough  to 
condemn  his  scheme,  for  if  he  had  really  made  the  discovery 
which  he  claimed  there  would  have  been  no  difficulty  in 
proving  it  practically  and  thoroughly,  and  then  he  might 
have  formed  company  after  company  that  would  have  re- 
warded him  with  "  wealth  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice." 

The  Keeley  motor  was  not  put  forward  as  a  perpetual 
motion ;  in  these  days  none  of  these  schemes  is  admitted 
to  be  a  perpetual  motion,  for  that  term  has  now  become 
exceedingly  offensive  and  would  condemn  any  invention  ; 
but  the  result  is  the  same  in  the  end,  and  the  whole  his- 
tory of  perpetual  motion  is  permeated  with  frauds  of  this 
kind,  some  of  them  having  been  so  simple  that  they  were 
obvious  to  even  the  most  unskilled1  observer,  while  others 
were  exceedingly  complicated  and  most  ingeniously  con- 
cealed.  Many  years  ago  a  number  of  these  fraudulent  per- 
petual-motion machines  were  manufactured  in  America 
and  sent  over  to  Great  Britain  for  exhibition,  and  quite  a 
lucrative  business  was  done  by  showing  them  in  various 
towns.  But  the  fraud  was  soon  detected  and  the  British 
police  then  made  it  too  warm  for  these  swindlers. 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  Jl 

Mr.  Dircks,  in  his  "  Perpetuum  Mobile,"  has  given  ac- 
counts of  quite  a  number  of  these  impostures.  The  fol- 
lowing are  some  of  the  most  notable : 

M.  Poppe  of  Tubingen  tells  of  a  clock  made  by  M.  Geiser, 
which  was  an  admirable  piece  of  mechanism  and  seemed  to 
have  solved  this  great  problem  in  an  ingenious  and  simple 
manner,  but  it  deceived  only  for  a  time.  When  thoroughly 
examined  inwardly  and  outwardly,  some  time  after  his 
death,  it  was  found  that  the  center  props  supporting  its 
cylinders  contained  cleverly  constructed,  hidden  clock-work, 
wound  up  by  inserting  a  key  in  a  small  hole  under  the  sec- 
ond-hand. 

Another  case  was  that  of  a  man  named  Adams  who  ex- 
hibited, for  eight  or  nine  days,  his  pretended  perpetual 
motion  in  a  town  in  England  and  took  in  the  natives  for 
fifty  or  sixty  pounds.  Accident,  however,  led  to  a  discov- 
ery of  the  imposture.  A  gentleman,  viewing  the  machine 
took  hold  of  the  wheel  or  trundle  and  lifted  it  up  a  little, 
which  probably  disengaged  the  wheels  that  connected  the 
hidden  machinery  in  the  plinth,  and  immediately  he  heard 
a  sound  similar  to  that  of  a  watch  when  the  spring  is  run- 
ning down.  The  owner  was  in  great  anger  and  directly 
put  the  wheel  into  its  proper  position,  and  the  machine 
again  went  around  as  before.  The  circumstance  was  men- 
tioned to  an  intelligent  person  who  determined  to  find"  out 
and  expose  the  imposture.  He  took  with  him  a  friend  to 
view  the  machine  and  they  seated  themselves  one  on  each 
side  of  the  table  upon  which  the  machine  was  placed. 
They  then  took  hold  of  the  wheel  and  trundle  and  lifted 
them  up,  there  being  some  play  in  the  pivots.  Immedi- 
ately the  hidden  spring  began  to  run  down  and  they  con- 
tinued to  hold  the  machine  in  spite  of  the  endeavors  of 


/2  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

the  owner  to  prevent  them.  When  the  spring  had  run 
down,  they  placed  the  machine  again  on  the  table  and 
offered  the  owner  fifty  pounds  if  it  could  then  set  itself 
going,  but  notwithstanding  his  fingering  and  pushing,  it  re- 
mained motionless.  A  constable  was  sent  for,  the  impostor 
went  before  a  magistrate  and  there  signed  a  paper  confess- 
ing his  perpetual  motion  to  be  a  cheat. 

In  the  "  Mechanic's  Magazine,"  Vol.  46,  is  an  account 
of  a  perpetual  motion,  constructed  by  one  Redhoeffer  of 
Pennsylvania,  which  obtained  sufficient  notoriety  to  in- 
duce the  Legislature  to  appoint  a  committee  to  enquire 
into  its  merits.  The  attention  of  Mr.  Lukens  was  turned 
to  the  subject,  and  although  the  actual  moving  cause  was 
not  discovered,  yet  the  deception  was  so  ingeniously  imi- 
tated in  a  machine  of  similar  appearance  made  by  him  and 
moved  by  a  spring  so  well  concealed,  that  the  deceiver  him- 
self was  deceived  and  Redhoeffer  was  induced  to  believe 
that  Mr.  Lukens  had  been  successful  in  obtaining  a  mov- 
ing power  in  some  way  in  which  he  himself  had  failed, 
when  he  had  produced  a  machine  so  plausible  in  appear- 
ance as  to  deceive  the  public. 

Instances  of  a  similar  kind  might  be  multiplied  in- 
definitely. 

The  experienced  mechanic  who  reads  the  descriptions 
here  given  of  the  various  devices  which  have  been  proposed 
for  the  construction  of  a  perpetual-motion  machine  must  be 
struck  with  the  childish  simplicity  of  the  plans  which  have 
been  offered ;  and  those  who  will  search  the  pages  of  the 
mechanical  journals  of  the  last  century  or  who  will  ex- 
amine the  two  closely  printed  volumes  in  which  Mr.  Dircks 
has  collected  almost  everything  of  the  kind,  will  be  aston- 
ished at  the  sameness  which  prevails  amongst  the  offering* 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  73 

of  these  would-be  inventors.  Amongst  the  hundreds,  or, 
perhaps,  thousands,  of  contrivances  which  have  been  de- 
scribed, there  is  probably  not  more  than  a  dozen  kinds 
which  differ  radically  from  each  other ;  the  same  arrange- 
ment having  been  invented  and  re-invented  over  and  over 
again.  And  one  of  the  strange  features  of  the  case  is  that 
successive  inventors  seem  to  take  no  note  of  the  failure  of 
those  predecessors  who  have  brought  forward  precisely  the 
same  combination  of  parts  under  a  very  slightly  different 
form. 

It  is  true  that  we  occasionally  find  a  very  elaborate  and 
apparently  complicated  machine,  but  in  such  cases  it  will  be 
found,  on  close  examination,  to  owe  its  apparent  complexity 
to  a  mere  multiplication  of  parts ;  no  real  inventive  ingen- 
uity is  exhibited  in  any  case. 

Another  singular  characteristic  of  almost  all  those  who 
have  devoted  themselves  to  the  search  for  a  perpetual 
motion  is  their  absolute  confidence  in  the  success  of  the 
plans  which  they  have  brought  forth.  So  confident  are 
they  in  the  soundness  of  their  views  and  so  sure  of  the  suc- 
cess of  their  schemes  that  they  do  not  even  take  the  trouble 
to  test  their  plans  but  announce  them  as  accomplished 
facts,  and  publish  their  sketches  and  descriptions  as  if  the 
machine  was  already  working  without  a  hitch.  Indeed,  so 
far  was  one  inventor  carried  away  with  this  feeling  of  con- 
fidence in  the  success  of  his  machine  that  he  no  longer 
allowed  himself  to  be  troubled  with  any  doubts  as  to  the 
machine's  going  but  was  greatly  puzzled  as  to  what  means 
he  should  take  to  stop  it  after  it  had  been  set  in  motion ! 

These  facts,  which  are  well  known  to  all  who  have  been 
brought  into  contact  with  this  class  of  minds,  explain  many 
otherwise  puzzling  circumstances  and  enable  us  to  place 


74  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

a  proper  value  on  assertions  which,  if  not  made  so  posi- 
tively and  by  such  apparently  good  authority,  would  be  at 
once  condemned  as  deliberate  falsehoods.  That  falsehood, 
pure  and  simple,  has  formed  the  basis  of  a  good  many 
claims  of  this  kind,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  at  the  same 
time,  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the  claimants  really  de- 
ceived themselves  and  attributed  to  causes  other  than  radi- 
cal errors  of  theory,  the  fact  that  their  machines  would  not 
continue  to  move. 

While  many  have  claimed  the  actual  invention  of  a  per- 
petual motion  it  is  very  certain  that  not  one  has  ever  suc- 
ceeded. How,  then,  are  we  to  explain  the  statements 
which  have  been  made  in  regard  to  Orffyreus  and  the 
claims  of  the  Marquis  of  Worcester  ?  For  both  of  these 
men  it  is  claimed  that  they  constructed  wheels  which  were 
capable  of  moving  perpetually  and  apparently  strong  testi- 
mony is  offered  in  support  of  these  assertions. 

In  the  famous  "  Century  of  Inventions,"  published  by 
the  Marquis  in  1663,  four  years  before  his  death,  the  cele- 
brated 56th  article  reads  as  follows  (verbatim  et  literatim) : 

"  To  provide  and  make  that  all  the  Weights  of  the  descend- 
ing side  of  a  Wheel  shall  be  perpetually  further  from  the 
Centre,  then  those  of  the  mounting  side,  and  yet  equal  in 
number  and  heft  to  the  one  side  as  the  other.  A  most  in- 
credible thing,  if  not  seen,  but  tried  before  the  late  king 
(of  blessed  memory)  in  the  Tower,  by  my  directions,  two 
Extraordinary  Embassadors  accompanying  His  Majesty,  and 
the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Duke  Hamilton,  with  most  of 
the  Court,  attending  Him.  The  Wheel  was  14.  Foot  over, 
and  40.  Weights  of  50.  pounds  apiece.  Sir  William  Balfore, 
then  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  can  justifie  it,  with  several 
others.  They  all  saw,  that  no  sooner  these  great  Weights 
passed  the  Diameter-line  of  the  lower  side,  but  they  hung 
a  foot  further  from  the  Centre,  nor  no  sooner  passed  the 
Diameter-line  of  the  upper  side,  but  they  hung  a  foot  nearer. 
Be  pleased  to  judge  the  consequence." 


PERPETUAL   MOTION  75 

Such  is  the  account  given  by  the  Marquis  himself,  and 
that  he  exhibited  such  a  wheel  at  the  time  and  place  which 
he  names,  I  have  not  the  least  doubt.  And  that  some  of 
the  weights  on  one  side  hung  a  foot  further  from  the  cen- 
ter than  did  weights  on  the  other  side  is  also  no  doubt  true, 
but,  as  the  judging  of  the  "consequence"  is  left  to  our- 
selves we  know  that  after  the  first  impulse  given  to  it  had 
been  expended,  the  wheel  would  simply  stand  still  unless 
kept  in  motion  by  some  external  force. 


Fig.  17. 

Mr.  Dircks  in  his  "  Life,  Times  and  Scientific  Labours 
of  the  Second  Marquis  of  Worcester,"  gives  an  engraving 
of  a  wheel  which  complies  with  all  the  conditions  laid  down 
by  the  Marquis  and  which  is  thus  described : 

"  Let  the  annexed  diagram,  Fig.  17,  represent  a  wheel  of 
14  feet  in  diameter,  having  40  spokes,  seven  feet  each,  and 
with  an  inner  rim  coinciding  with  the  periphery,  at  one 
foot  distance  all  round.  Next  provide  40  balls  or  weights, 
hanging  in  the  center  of  cords  or  chains  two  feet  long. 
Now,  fasten  one  end  of  this  cord  at  the  top  of  the  center 


76  THE   SEVEN  FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

spoke  C,  and  the  other  end  of  the  cord  to  the  next  right- 
hand  spoke  one  foot  below  the  upper  end,  or  on  the  inner 
ring;  proceed  in  like  manner  with  every  other  spoke  in 
succession;  and  it  will  be  found  that,  at  A,  the  cord  will 
have  the  position  shown  outside  the  wheel ;  while  at  B,  C, 
and  D,  it  will  also  take  the  respective  positions,  as  shown 
on  the  outside.  The  result  hi  this  case  will  be,  that  all 
the  weights  on  the  side  A,  C,  D,  hang  to  the  great  or  outer 
circle,  while  on  the  side  B,  C,  D,  all  the  weights  are  sus- 
pended from  the  lesser  or  inner  circle.  And  if  we  reverse 
the  motion  of  the  wheel,  turning  it  from  the  right  to  the 
left  hand,  we  shall  reverse  these  positions  also  (the  lower 
end  of  the  cord  sliding  in  a  groove  towards  a  left-hand 
spoke),  but  without  the  wheel  having  any  tendency  to  move 
of  itself." 

But  it  is  quite  as  likely  that  the  wheel  constructed  by 
the  Marquis  was  like  one  of  the  "  overbalancing  "  wheels 
described  at  the  beginning  of  this  article. 

It  is  upon  this  "  scantling  "  that  has  been  based  the 
claim  that  the  Marquis  really  invented  a  perpetual  motion, 
but  to  those  who  have  seen  much  of  inventors  of  this  kind, 
the  discrepancy  between  the  suggested  claim  made  by  the 
Marquis  and  what  we  know  must  have  been  the  actual 
results,  is  easily  explained.  The  Marquis  felt  sure  that 
the  thing  ought  to  work,  and  the  excuse  for  its  not  doing 
so  was  probably  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  the  wheel 
was  made.  Only  put  a  little  better  work  on  it,  says  the 
inventor,  and  it  will  go. 

Caspar  Kaltoff,  mechanician  to  the  Marquis,  probably 
got  the  wheel  up  in  a  hurry  so  as  to  exhibit  it  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  king's  visit  to  the  tower.  If  he  only  had  had  a 
little  more  time  he  would  have  made  a  machine  that  would 
have  worked.  (?)  I  have  heard  the  same  excuse  under 
almost  the  same  circumstances,  scores  of  times. 

The  case  of   Orffyreus  was  very  different.     The  real 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  77 

name  of  this  inventor  was  Jean  Ernest  Elie-Bessler,  and  he 
is  said  to  have  manufactured  the  name  Orffyreus  by  plac- 
ing his  own  name  between  two  lines  of  letters,  and  picking 
out  alternate  letters  above  and  below.  He  was  educated 
for  the  church,  but  turned  his  attention  to  mechanics  and 
became  an  expert  clock  maker.  His  character,  as  given 
by  his  contemporaries  was  fickle,  tricky,  and  irascible. 
Having  devised  a  scheme  for  perpetual  motion  he  con- 
structed several  wheels  which  he  claimed.to  be  self-moving. 
The  last  one  which  he  made  was  12  feet  in  diameter  and 
14  inches  deep,  the  material  being  light  pine  boards, 
covered  with  waxed  cloth  to  conceal  the  mechanism.  The 
axle  was  8  inches  thick,  thus  affording  abundant  space  for 
concealed  machinery. 

This  wheel  was  submitted  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse 
who  had  it  placed  in  a  room  which  was  then  locked,  and 
the  lock  secured  with  the  Landgrave's  own  seal.  At  the 
end  of  forty  days  it  was  found  to  be  still  running. 

Professor  'sGravesande  having  been  employed  by  the 
Landgrave  to  make  an  examination  and  pronounce  upon 
its  merits,  he  endeavored  to  perform  his  work  thoroughly ; 
this  so  irritated  Orffyreus  that  the  latter  broke  the  machine 
in  pieces,  and  left  on  the  wall  a  writing  stating  that  he  had 
been  driven  to  do  this  by  the  impertinent  curiosity  of  the 
Professor ! 

I  have  no  doubt  that  this  was  a  clear  case  of  fraud,  and 
that  the  wheel  was  driven  by  some  mechanism  concealed 
in  the  huge  axle.  As  already  stated,  Orffyreus  was  at 
one  time  a  clock  maker ;  now  clocks  have  been  made  to  go 
for  a  whole  year  without  having  to  be  rewound,  so  that 
forty  days  was  not  a  very  long  time  for  the  apparatus  to 
keep  in  motion. 


78  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

Professor  'sGravesande  seems  to  have  had  some  faith 
in  the  invention,  but  then  we  must  remember  that  it  would 
not  have  been  very  difficult  to  deceive  an  honest  old  pro- 
fessor whose  confidence  in  humanity  was  probably  un- 
bounded. The  crowning  argument  against  the  genuineness 
of  the  motion  was  the  fact  that  the  inventor  refused  to 
allow  a  thorough  examination,  although  a  wealthy  patron 
stood  ready  with  a  large  reward  if  the  machine  could  be 
proved  to  be  what  was  claimed. 

And  now  comes  up  the  question  which  has  arisen  in 
regard  to  other  problems,  and  will  recur  again  and  again 
to  the  end  of  the  chapter :  Is  a  perpetual  motion  machine 
one  of  the  scientific  impossibilities? 

The  answer  to  this  question  lies  in  the  fact  that  there 
is  no  principle  more  thoroughly  established  than  that  no 
combination  of  machinery  can  create  energy.  So  far  as 
our  present  knowledge  of  nature  goes  we  might  as  well 
try  to  create  matter  as  to  create  energy,  and  the  creation 
of  energy  is  essential  to  the  successful  working  of  a  per- 
petual-motion machine  because  some  power  must  always 
be  lost  through  friction  and  other  resistances  and  must  be 
supplied  from  some  source  if  the  machine  is  to  keep  on 
moving.  And  since  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy 
makes  it  positive  that  no  more  power  can  be  given  out  by 
a  machine  than  was  originally  supplied  to  it,  it  seems  as 
certain  as  anything  can  be  that  the  construction  of  a  per- 
petual-motion machine  is  one  of  the  impossibilities. 


V 
TRANSMUTATION    OF   THE   METALS 


HE  "accursed  thirst  for  gold"  has  existed  from 
the  earliest  ages  and,  as  the  apostle  says,  "  is  the 
root  of  all  evil."  Those  who  have  a  greed  for 
power,  a  craving  for  luxury,  or  a  fever  for  lust, 
all  think  that  their  wildest  dreams  might  be  realized  if 
they  could  only  command  sufficient  gold.  Never  was 
there  a  more  lurid  picture  of  a  mind  inflamed  with  all  these 
evil  passions  than  that  set  forth  by  Ben  Jonson  in  the 
Second  Act  of  "  The  Alchemist,"  and  who  can  doubt  but 
that  such  desires  and  dreams  spurred  on  many,  either  to 
engage  in  an  actual  search  for  the  philosopher's  stone,  or 
to  become  the  dupes  of  what  Van  Helmont  calls  "  a  dia- 
bolical crew  of  gold  and  silver  sucking  flies  and  leeches. 'V. 
As  we  might  naturally  expect,  the  early  history  of 
alchemy  is  shrouded  in  myths  and  fables.  Zosimus  the 
Panapolite  tells  us  that  the  art  of  Alchemy  was  first 
taught  to  mankind  by  demons,  who  fell  in  love  with  the 
daughters  of  men,  and,  as  a  reward  for  their  favors,  taught 
them  all  the  works  and  mysteries  of  nature.  On  this 
Boerhaave  remarks : 

"  This  ancient  fiction  took  its  rise  from  a  mistaken  in- 
terpretation of  the  words  of  Moses,  '  That  the  sons  of  God 
saw  the  daughters  of  men  that  they  were  fair,  and  they 
took  them  wives  of  all  which  they  chose.' 1     From  whence 
it  was  inferred  that  the  sons  of  God  were  daemons,  con- 
sisting of  a  soul,  and  a  visible  but  impalpable  body,  like 
1   Genesis  vi,  2. 
79 


80  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

the  image  in  a  looking-glass  (to  which  notion  we  find 
several  allusions  in  the  evangelists);  that  they  know  all 
things,  appeared  to  men  and  conversed  with  them,  fell 
in  love  with  women,  had  intrigues  with  them  and  revealed 
secrets.  From  the  same  fable  probably  arose  that  of  the 
Sibyl,  who  is  said  to  have  obtained  of  Apollo  the  gift  of 
prophecy,  and  revealing  the  will  of  heaven  in  return  for 
a  like  favor.  So  prone  is  the  roving  mind  of  man  to  fig- 
ments, which  it  can  at  first  idly  amuse  itself  with,  and  at 
length  fall  down  and  worship." 

This  idea  of  the  supernatural  origin  of  the  arts  perme- 
ates the  ancient  mythology  which  everywhere  teaches  that 
men  were  taught  the  sacred  arts  of  medicine  and  chemis- 
try by  gods  and  demigods. 

Modern  science  discards  all  these  mythological  accounts. 
Whatever  knowledge  the  ancients  acquired  of  medicine  and 
chemistry  was,  no  doubt,  reached  along  two  lines  —  phar- 
macy and  metallurgy.  That  the  pharmacist  or  apothecary 
exercised  his  calling  at  a  very  early  period  we  have  posi- 
tive knowledge ;  thus  in  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  we  are 
told  that  "  dead  flies  cause  the  ointment  of  the  apothecary 
to  send  forth  a  stinking  savor,"  and  that  men  at  a  very 
early  day  found  out  the  means  of  working  iron,  copper, 
gold,  silver,  etc.,  is  evident  from  the  accounts  given  of 
Vulcan  and  Tubalcain,  as  well  as  from  the  remains  of  old 
tools  and  weapons.  And  that  Alchemy,  as  it  is  generally 
understood,  is  a  comparatively  modern  outgrowth  of  these 
two  arts,  is  pretty  certain.  No  mention  of  the  art  of  con- 
verting the  baser  metals  into  gold,  and  no  account  of  a 
universal  medicine  or  elixir  of  life  is  to  be  found  in  any  of 
the  authentic  writings  of  the  ancients.  Homer,  Aristotle, 
and  even  Pliny  are  all  silent  on  the  subject,  and  those 
writings  which  treat  of  the  art,  and  which  claim  an  ancient 
origin,  such  as  the  books  of  Hermes  Trismegistus,  are  now 


TRANSMUTATION   OF  THE   METALS  8l 

regarded  by  the  best  authorities  as  spurious  —  the  evi- 
dence that  they  were  the  work  of  a  far  later  age  being 
irrefragable. 

Several  writers  have  taken  the  ground  that  the  alchemi- 
cal treatises  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  early 
writers  on  the  subject,  are  purely  allegorical  and  do  not 
relate  to  material  things,  but  to  the  principles  of  a  higher 
religion  which,  in  those  days,  it  was  dangerous  to  expound 
in  plain  language.  One  or  two  elaborate  works  and  several 
articles  supporting  this  view  have  been  published,  but  the 
common-sense  reader  who  will  glance  through  the  im- 
mense collection  of  alchemical  tracts  gathered  together  by 
Mangetus  in  two  folio  volumes  of  a  thousand  pages  each, 
will  rise  from  such  examination,  very  thoroughly  convinced 
that  it  was  the  actual  metal  gold,  and  the  fabled  universal 
medicine  that  these  writers  had  in  view. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Geber,  Roger  Bacon, 
Albertus  Magnus,  Raymond  Lully,  Helvetius,  Van  Hel- 
mont,  Basil  Valentine,  and  others,  describe  very  substan- 
tial things  with  a  minuteness  of  detail  which  leaves  no 
room  for  doubt  as  to  their  materiality  though  we  cannot 
always  be  sure  of  their  identity. 

Some  confusion  of  thought  has  been  caused  by  the* 
difference  which  has  been  made  between  the  terms  alchemy 
and  chemistry  and  their  applications.  The  word  alchemy 
is  simply  the  word  chemistry  with  the  Arabic  word  al, 
which  signifies  the,  prefixed,  and  the  history  of  alchemy  is 
really  the  history  of  chemistry  —  wild  and  erratic  in  its 
beginnings,  and  giving  rise  to  strange  hopes  and  still 
stranger  theories,  but  ever  working  along  the  line  of  dis- 
covery and  progress.  And,  although  many  of  the  profes- 
sional chemists  or  alchemists  of  the  middle  ages  were 


82  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

undoubted  charlatans  and  quacks,  yet  did  we  not  have 
many  of  the  same  kind  in  the  nineteenth  century  ?  We 
may  use  the  word  alchemist  as  a  term  of  reproach,  and  apply 
it  to  these  early  workers  because  their  theories  appear 
to  us  to  be  absurd,  but  how  do  we  know  that  the  chemists 
of  the  twenty-second  century  will  not  regard  us  in  a  similar 
light,  and  set  at  naught  the  theories  we  so  fondly  cherish  ? 

Only  seven  out  of  the  large  number  of  metals  now  cata- 
logued by  us  were  known  to  the  ancients ;  these  were 
gold,  silver,  mercury,  copper,  tin,  lead,  and  iron.  And  as  it 
happened  that  the  list  of  so-called  planets  also  numbered 
exactly  seven,  it  was  thought  that  there  must  be  a  connec- 
tion between  the  two,  and,  consequently,  in  the  alchemical 
writings,  each  metal  was  called  by  the  name  of  that  one  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  which  was  supposed  to  be  connected 
with  it  in  influence  and  quality. 

In  the  astronomy  of  the  ancients,  as  is  generally  known, 
the  earth  occupied  the  center  of  the  universe,  and  the  list 
of  planets  included  the  sun  and  moon.  After  them  came 
Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn.  To  the  metal 
gold  was  given  the  name  of  Sol,  or  the  sun,  on  account 
of  its  brightness  and  its  power  of  resisting  corroding  agents ; 
hence  the  compounds  of  gold  were  known  as  solar  compounds 
and  solar  medicines.  As  might  have  been  expected,  silver 
was  assigned  to  Luna  or  the  moon,  and  in  the  modern 
pharmacopoeia  such  terms  as  lunar  caustic  and  lunar  salts 
still  have  a  place.  Mercury  was,  of  course,  appropriated  to 
the  planet  of  that  name.  Copper  was  named  after  Venus, 
and  cupreous  salts  were  known  as  venereal  salts.  Iron, 
probably  from  its  being  the  metal  chiefly  used  for  making 
arms  and  armor,  was  dedicated  to  Mars,  and  we  still  speak 
of  martial  salts.  Tin  was  named  after  Jupiter  from  his  bril- 


TRANSMUTATION   OF  THE   METALS  83 

liancy,  the  compounds  of  tin  being  called  jovial  salts.  The 
dull,  leaden  color  of  Saturn,  with  his  apparently  heavy  and 
slow  motion,  seemed  to  fit  him  for  association  with  lead,  and 
we  still  have  the  saturnine  ointment  as  a  reminder  of  old 
alchemical  times. 

Of  these  metals  gold  was  supposed  to  be  the  only  one 
that  was  perfect,  and  the  belief  was  general  that  if  the 
others  could  be  purified  and  perfected  they  would  be 
changed  to  gold.  Many  of  the  old  chemists  worked  faith- 
fully and  honestly  to  accomplish  this,  but  the  path  to  wealth 
seemed  so  direct  and  the  means  for  deception  were  so 
ready  and  simple,  that  large  numbers  of  quacks  and  charla- 
tans entered  the  field  and  held  out  the  most  alluring  induce- 
ments to  dupes  who  furnished  them  liberally  with  money 
and  other  necessaries  in  the  hope  that  when  the  discovery 
was  made  they  would  be  put  in  possession  of  unbounded 
wealth.  These  dupes  were  easily  deceived  and  led  astray 
by  simple  frauds,  which  scarcely  rose  to  the  level  of  amateur 
legerdemain.  In  the  "Memoirs  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences"  for  1772,  M.  Geoffroy  gives  an  account  of  the 
various  modes  in  which  the  frauds  of  these  swindlers  were 
carried  on.  The  following  are  a  few  of  their  tricks : 
Instead  of  the  mineral  substances  which  they  pretended 
to  transmute  they  put  a  salt  of  gold  or  silver  at  the  bottom 
of  the  crucible,  the  mixture  being  covered  with  some  pow- 
dered crucible  and  gum  water  or  wax  so  that  it  might 
look  like  the  bottom  of  the  crucible.  Another  method  was 
to  bore  a  hole  in  a  piece  of  charcoal,  fill  the  hole  with  fine 
filings  of  gold  or  silver,  stopping  it  with  powered  charcoal, 
mixed  with  some  agglutinent  so  that  the  whole  might  look 
natural.  Then  when  the  charcoal  burned  away,  the  silver 
or  gold  was  found  in  the  bottom  of  the  crucible.  Or  they 


84  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

soaked  charcoal  in  a  solution  of  these  metals  and  threw 
the  charcoal,  when  powdered,  upon  the  material  to  be  trans- 
muted. Sometimes  they  whitened  gold  with  mercury  and 
made  it  pass  for  silver  or  tin,  and  the  gold  when  melted  was 
exhibited  as  the  result  of  transmutation.  A  common  ex- 
hibition was  to  dip  nails  in  a  liquid  and  to  take  them  out 
apparently  half  converted  into  gold ;  these  nails  consisted 
of  one-half  iron  neatly  soldered  to  the  other  half,  which  was 
gold,  and  covered  with  something  to  conceal  the  color. 
The  paint  or  covering  was  removed  by  the  liquid.  A  very 
common  trick  was  the  use  of  a  hollow,  iron  stirring  rod ; 
the  hollow  was  filled  with  gold  or  silver  filings,  and  neatly 
stopped  with  wax.  When  used  to  stir  the  contents  of  the 
crucible  the  wax  melted  and  allowed  the  gold  or  silver  to 
fall  out. 

These  frauds  were  rendered  all  the  more  easy  because 
of  certain  statements  which  were  current  in  regard  to  suc- 
cessful attempts  to  con  vert  lead  and  other  metals  into  gold. 
These  accounts  were  vouched  for  by  well-known  chemists 
and  others  of  high  standing.  Perhaps  the  most  famous  of 
these  is  that  given  by  Helvetius  in  his  "  Brief  of  the  Golden 
Calf ;  Discovering  the  Rarest  Miracle  in  Nature ;  how  by 
the  smallest  portion  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  a  great 
piece  of  common  lead  was  totally  transmuted  into  the  purest 
transplendent  gold,  at  the  Hague  in  1666."  The  following 
is  Brande's  abridgment  of  this  singular  account. 

"  The  27th  day  of  December,  1666,  in  the  afternoon, 
came  a  stranger  to  my  house  at  the  Hague,  in  a  plebeick 
habit,  of  honest  gravity  and  serious  authority,  of  a  mean 
stature  and  a  little  long  face,  black  hair  not  at  all  curled, 
a  beardless  chin,  and  about  forty-four  years  (as  I  guess)  of 
age  and  born  in  North  Holland.  After  salutation,  he  be- 
seoched  me  with  great  reverence  to  pardon  his  rude  accesses, 


TRANSMUTATION  OF  THE  METALS  85 

for  he  was  a  lover  of  the  Pyrotechnian  art,  and  having 
read  my  treatise  against  the  sympathetic  powder  of  Sir 
Kenelm  Digby,  and  observed  my  doubt  about  the  philo- 
sophic mystery,  induced  him  to  ask  me  if  I  really  was  a 
disbeliever  as  to  the  existence  of  an  universal  medicine 
which  would  cure  all  diseases,  unless  the  principal  parts 
were  perished,  or  the  predestinated  time  of  death  come. 
I  replied,  I  never  met  with  an  adept,  or  saw  such  a  medi- 
cine, though  I  had  fervently  prayed  for  it.  Then  I  said, 
'  Surely  you  are  a  learned  physician.'  '  Ko,'  said  he,  *  I  am  a 
brass-founder,  and  a  lover  of  chemistry.1  He  then  took 
from  his  bosom-pouch  a  neat  ivory  box,  and  out  of  it  three 
ponderous  lumps  of  stone,  each  about  the  bigness  of  a 
walnut.  I  greedily  saw  and  handled  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  this  most  noble  substance,  the  value  of  which  might 
be  somewhere  about  twenty  tons  of  gold;  and  having 
drawn  from  the  owner  many  rare  secrets  of  its  admirable 
effects,  I  returned  him  this  treasure  of  treasures  with  a 
most  sorrowful  mind,  humbly  beseech  ing  him  to  bestow  a 
fragment  of  it  upon  me  in  perpetual  irercory  of  him,  though 
but  the  size  of  a  coriander  seed.  'No,  no,'  said  he,  'that  is 
not  lawful,  though  thou  wouldest  give  me  as  many  golden 
ducats  as  would  fill  this  room;  for  it  would  have  particular 
consequences,  and  if  fire  could  be  burned  of  fire,  I  would 
at  this  instant  rather  cast  it  all  into  the  fiercest  flames.' 
He  then  asked  if  I  had  a  private  chamber  whose  prospect 
was  from  the  public  street;  so  I  presently  conducted  him 
to  my  best  furnished  room  backwards,  which  he  entered, 
says  Helvetius  (in  the  true  spirit  of  Dutch  cleanliness), 
without  wiping  his  shoes,  which  were  full  of  snow  and 
dirt.  I  now  expected  he  would  bestow  some  great  secret 
upon  me ;  but  in  vain.  He  asked  for  a  piece  of  gold,  and 
opening  his  doublet  showed  me  five  pieces  of  that  precious 
metal  which  he  wore  upon  a  green  riband,  and  which  very 
much  excelled  mine  hi  flexibility  and  color,  each  being 
the  size  of  a  small  trencher.  I  now  earnestly  again  craved 
a  crumb  of  the  stone,  and  at  last,  out  of  his  philosophical 
commiseration,  he  gave  me  a  morsel  as  large  as  a  rape- 
seed  ;  but  I  said,  *  This  scanty  portion  will  scarcely  trans- 
mute four  grains  of  lead.'  '  Then,'  said  he,  *  Deliver  it  me 
back : '  which  I  did,  hi  hopes  of  a  greater  parcel ;  but  he, 
cutting  off  half  with  his  nail,  said :  '  Even  this  is  sufficient 


86  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

for  thee.'  *  Sir,'  said  I,  with  a  dejected  countenance,  *  what 
means  this  ?  '  And  he  said,  *  Even  that  will  transmute  half 
an  ounce  of  lead.'  So  I  gave  him  great  thanks,  and  said  I 
would  try  it,  and  reveal  it  to  no  one.  He  then  took  his 
leave,  and  said  he  would  call  again  next  morning  at  nine. 
I  then  confessed,  that  while  the  mass  of  his  medicine  was 
in  my  hand  the  day  before,  I  had  secretly  scraped  off  a 
bit  with  my  nail,  which  I  projected  on  lead,  but  it  caused  no 
transmutation,  for  the  whole  flew  away  in  fumes.  *  Friend,' 
said  he,  '  thou  art  more  dexterous  in  committing  theft  than 
in  applying  medicine;  hadst  thou  wrapt  up  thy  stolen  prey 
in  yellow  wax,  it  would  have  penetrated  and  transmuted 
the  lead  into  gold.'  I  then  asked  if  the  philosophic  work 
cost  much  or  required  long  time,  for  philosophers  say  that 
nine  or  ten  months  are  required  for  it.  He  answered, 

*  Their  writings  are  only  to  be  understood  by  the  adepts, 
without  whom  no  student  can  prepare  this  magistery.    Fling 
not  away,  therefore,  thy  money  and  goods  in  hunting  out 
this  art,  for  thou  shalt  never  find  it.'    To  which  I  replied, 

*  As  thy  master  showed  it  thee  so  mayest  thou  perchance 
discover  something  thereof  to  me  who  know  the  rudiments, 
and  therefore,  it  may  be  easier  to  add  to  a  foundation  than 
begin  anew.'     *  In  this  art,'  said  he,  '  it  is  quite  otherwise, 
for  unless  thou  knowest  the  thing  from  head  to  heel,  thou 
canst  not  break  open  the  glassy  seal  of  Hermes.     But 
enough;  tomorrow  at  the  ninth  hour  I  will  show  thee  the 
manner  of  projection.'     But  Elias  never  came  again;  so 
my  wife,  who  was  curious  in  the  art  whereof  the  worthy 
man  had  discoursed,  teazed  me  to  make  the  experiment 
with  the  little  spark  of  bounty  the  artist  had  left  me;  so 
I  melted  half  an  ounce  of  lead,  upon  which  my  wife  put 
in  the  said  medicine ;  it  hissed  and  bubbled,  and  in  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  the  mass  of  lead  was  transmuted  into  fine  gold, 
at  which  we  were  exceedingly  amazed.     I  took  it  to  the 
goldsmith,    who  judged  it    most    excellent,   and    willingly 
offered  fifty  florins  for  each  ounce." 

Such  is  the  celebrated  history  of  Elias  the  artist  and 
Dr.  Helvetius. 

Helvetius  stood  very  high  as  a  man  and  chemist,  but  in 
connection  with  this  and  some  other  narratives  of  the  same 


TRANSMUTATION   OF  THE   METALS  8? 

kind,  it  may  be  well  to  remember  that  something  over  a 
hundred  years  before  that  time  the  celebrated  Paracelsus 
had  introduced  laudanum. 

The  following  is  another  history  of  transmutation,  given 
by  Mangetus,  on  the  authority  of  M.  Gros,  a  clergyman  of 
Geneva,  "of  the  most  unexceptionable  character,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  skilful  physician  and  expert  chemist." 

"  About  the  year  1650  an  unknown  Italian  came  to 
Geneva  and  took  lodgings  at  the  sign  of  the  Green  Cross. 
After  remaining  there  a  day  or  two,  he  requested  De  Luc, 
the  landlord,  to  procure  him  a  man  acquainted  with  Italian, 
to  accompany  him  through  the  town  and  point  out  those 
things  which  deserved  to  be  examined.  De  Luc  was  ac- 
quainted with  M.  Gros,  at  that  time  about  twenty  years  of 
age,  and  a  student  in  Geneva,  and  knowing  his  proficiency 
in  the  Italian  language,  requested  him  to  accompany  the 
stranger.  To  this  proposition  he  willingly  acceded,  and 
attended  the  Italian  everywhere  for  the  space  of  a  fort- 
night. The  stranger  now  began  to  complain  of  want  of 
money,  which  alarmed  M.  Gros  not  a  little,  for  at  that 
time  he  was  very  poor,  and  he  became  apprehensive,  from 
the  tenor  of  the  stranger's  conversation,  that  he  intended 
to  ask  the  loan  of  money  from  him.  But  instead  of  this, 
the  Italian  asked  him  if  he  was  acquainted  with  any  gold' 
smith,  whose  bellows  and  other  utensils  they  might  be 
permitted  to  use,  and  who  would  not  refuse  to  supply  them 
with  the  different  articles  requisite  for  a  particular  process 
which  he  wanted  to  perform.  M.  Gros  named  a  M.  Bureau, 
to  whom  the  Italian  immediately  repaired.  He  readily 
furnished  crucibles,  pure  tin,  quicksilver,  and  the  other 
things  required  by  the  Italian.  The  goldsmith  left  his 
workshop,  that  the  Italian  might  be  under  the  less  restraint, 
leaving  M.  Gros,  with  one  of  his  own  workmen  as  an  attend- 
ant. The  Italian  put  a  quantity  of  tin  into  one  crucible, 
and  a  quantity  of  quicksilver  into  another.  The  tin  was 
melted  in  the  fire  and  the  mercury  heated.  It  was  then 
poured  into  the  melted  tin,  and  at  the  same  time  a  red 
powder  enclosed  in  wax  was  projected  into  the  amalgam. 
An  agitation  took  place  and  a  great  deal  of  smoke  was 


88  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

exhaled  from  the  crucible;  but  this  speedily  subsided,  and 
the  whole  being  poured  out,  formed  six  heavy  ingots, 
having  the  color  of  gold.  The  goldsmith  was  called  in  by 
the  Italian  and  requested  to  make  a  rigid  examination  of 
the  smallest  of  these  ingots.  The  goldsmith  not  content 
with  the  touch-stone  and  the  application  of  aquafortis, 
exposed  the  metal  on  the  cupel  with  lead  and  fused  it  with 
antimony,  but  it  sustained  no  loss.  He  found  it  possessed 
of  the  ductility  and  specific  gravity  of  gold;  and  full  of 
admiration,  he  exclaimed  that  he  had  never  worked  before 
upon  gold  so  perfectly  pure.  The  Italian  made  him  a 
present  of  the  smallest  ingot  as  a  recompense  and  then, 
accompanied  by  M.  Gros,  he  repaired  to  the  mint,  where 
he  received  from  M.  Bacuet,  the  mint-master,  a  quantity 
of  Spanish  gold  coin,  equal  in  weight  to  the  ingots  which 
he  had  brought.  To  M.  Gros  he  made  a  present  of  twenty 
pieces  on  account  of  the  attention  that  he  had  paid  to  him 
and  after  paying  his  bill  at  the  inn,  he  added  fifteen  pieces 
more,  to  serve  to  entertain  M.  Gros  and  M.  Bureau  for 
so m3  diys,  and  in  the  meantime  he  ordered  a  supper,  that 
he  might,  on  his  return,  have  the  pleasure  of  supping  with 
these  two  gentlemen.  He  went  out,  but  never  returned, 
leaving  behind  him  the  greatest  regret  and  admiration. 
It  is  needless  to  add  that  M.  Gros  and  M.  Bureau  continued 
to  enjoy  themselves  at  the  inn  till  the  fifteen  pieces  which 
the  stranger  had  left,  were  exhausted." 

Narratives  such  as  these  led  even  Bergman,  a  very  able 
chemist  of  the  period,  to  take  the  ground  that  "  although 
most  of  these  relations  are  deceptive  and  many  uncertain, 
some  bear  such  character  and  testimony  that,  unless  we  re- 
ject all  historical  evidence,  we  must  allow  them  entitled  to 
confidence." 

A  much  more  probable  explanation  is  that  the  relators 
were  either  dreaming  or  deceived  by  clever  legerdemain. 

Of  the  possibility  or  impossibility  of  converting  the  more 
common  metals  into  gold  or  silver,  it  would  be  rash  to 
give  a  positive  opinion.  To  say  that  gold,  silver,  lead, 


TRANSMUTATION  OF  THE   METALS  89 

copper,  etc.,  are  elements  and  cannot  be  changed,  is  merely 
to  say  that  we  have  not  been  able  to  decompose  them. 
Water,  potash,  soda,  and  other  substances,  were  at  one 
time  considered  elements,  and  resisted  all  the  efforts  of 
the  older  chemists  to  resolve  them  into  their  components, 
but  with  the  advent  of  more  powerful  means  of  analysis 
they  were  shown  to  be  compounds,  and  it  is  not  impossible 
that  the  so-called  elements  into  which  they  were  resolved 
may  themselves  be  found  to  be  compounds.  This  has 
happened  in  regard  to  some  substances  which  were  at  one 
time  announced  as  elements,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that 
it  may  happen  in  regard  to  others.  The  ablest  chemists 
of  the  present  day  recognize  this  fully  and  are  prepared 
for  radical  changes  in  our  knowledge  of  the  nature  and 
constitution  of  matter.  Amongst  the  new  views  is  the 
hypothesis  of  Rutherford  and  Soddy,  which,  as  given  by 
Sir  William  Ramsay,  in  a  recent  article  contributed  by  him 
to  "Harper's  Magazine,"  is  that, 

"  atoms  of  elements  of  high  atomic  weight,  such  as  radium, 
uranium,  thorium,  and  the  suspected  elements  polonium 
and  actinium,  are  unstable ;  that  they  undergo  spontaneous 
change  into  other  forms  of  matter,  themselves  radioactive 
and  themselves  unstable;  and  that  finally  elements  are 
produced,  which,  on  account  of  their  non-radioactivity,  are 
as  a  rule,  impossible  to  recognize,  for  their  minute  amount 
precludes  the  application  of  any  ordinary  test  with  success. 
The  recognition  of  helium  however,  which  is  compara- 
tively easy  of  detection,  lends  great  support  to  this  hypo- 
thesis." 

At  the  same  time  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  substances  which  we  now  recognize  as  elements 
have  not  only  resisted  the  most  powerful  analytical  agencies 
and  dissociating  forces,  but  have  maintained  their  elc- 


90  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

mental  character  in  spectrum  analysis,  and  shown  their 
presence  as  distinct  elements  in  the  sun  and  other  heavenly 
bodies  where  they  must  have  been  subjected  to  the  action 
of  the  most  energetic  decomposing  forces.  So  that  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge  the  near  prospect  of  suc- 
cessful transmutation  does  not  seem  to  be  very  bright, 
although  we  cannot  regard  it  as  impossible.  In  the  article 
from  which  we  have  already  quoted,  Sir  William  Ramsay, 
after  discussing  the  bearing  of  certain  experiments  in  re- 
gard to  the  parting  with  and  absorbing  of  energy  by  cer- 
tain elements,  says:  "If  these  hypotheses  are  just,  then 
the  transmutation  of  the  elements  no  longer  appears  an 
idle  dream.  The  philosopher's  stone  will  have  been  dis- 
covered, and  it  is  not  beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility  that 
it  may  lead  to  that  other  goal  of  the  philosophers  of  the 
dark  ages  —  the  elixir  vitce.  For  the  action  of  living  cells 
is  also  dependent  on  the  nature  and  direction  of  the  energy 
which  they  contain  ;  and  who  can  say  that  it  will  be  im- 
possible to  control  their  action,  when  the  means  of  impart- 
ing and  controlling  energy  shall  have  been  investigated  !  " 

In  the  event  of  the  discovery  of  a  cheap  method  of  pro- 
ducing gold,  the  change  which  would  certainly  occur  in  our 
financial  or  currency  system  would  be  important,  if  not 
revolutionary.  It  has  become  the  fashion  at  present  with 
certain  writers  to  scout  the  so-called  "quantitative  theory" 
of  money  as  if  it  were  an  exposed  fallacy.  Now  the  quan- 
titative theory  of  money  rests  on  one  of  the  most  well- 
grounded  and  firmly  established  principles  in  political  econ- 
omy:  the  trouble  is  that  the  writers  in  question  do  not 
understand  it  or  even  know  what  it  is.  At  present,  the 
production  of  gold  barely  keeps  pace  with  the  increasing 
demand  for  the  metal  as  currency  and  in  the  arts,  but  if 


TRANSMUTATION   OF  THE   METALS  91 

that  production  were  increased  ten-fold,  the  value  of  gold 
would  decline  and  prices  would  go  up  astonishingly. 

One  of  the  objects  which  the  better  class  of  alchemists 
had  in  view  was  the  making  of  gold  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  might  become  quite  common  and  cease  to  be  sought  after 
by  mankind.  One  alchemical  writer  says :  "  Would  to 
God  that  all  men  might  become  adepts  in  our  art,  for  then 
gold,  the  common  idol  of  mankind,  would  lose  its  value  and 
we  should  prize  it  only  for  its  scientific  teaching." 


VI 

THE   FIXATION   OF   MERCURY 


[HIS  is  really  one  of  the  processes  supposed  to 
be  involved  in  the  transmutation  of  the  metals 
and  might,  therefore,  perhaps,  with  propriety,  be 
included  under  that  head.  But  as  it  has  received 
special  attention  in  the  apocryphal  works  of  Hermes  Tris- 
megistus,  who  is  generally  regarded  as  the  Father  of  Al- 
chemy, it  is  frequently  mentioned  as  one  of  the  old  scientific 
problems.  Readers  of  Scott's  novel,  "  Ken il worth,"  may 
remember  that  Wayland  Smith,  in  his  account  of  his  former 
master,  Demetrius  Doboobius,  describes  him  as  a  profound 
chemist  who  had  "  made  several  efforts  to  fix  mercury,  and 
judged  himself  to  have  made  a  fair  hit  at  the  philosopher's 
stone."  Hermes,  or,  rather,  those  who  wrote  over  his 
name,  speaks  in  the  jargon  of  the  adepts,  about  "  catching 
the  flying  bird,"  by  which  is  meant  mercury,  and  "drown- 
ing it  so  that  it  may  fly  no  more."  The  usual  means  for 
effecting  this  was  amalgamation  with  gold,  or  some  other 
metal  or  solution  in  some  acid. 

To  the  ancient  chemists  mercury  must  have  been  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of  objects.  Its  great  heaviness,  its 
metallic  brilliancy,  and  its  wonderful  mobility,  must  all  have 
combined  to  render  it  a  subject  for  deep  thought  and  an 
attractive  object  for  experiment  and  investigation. 

Living  in  a  warm  climate,  as  they  did,  there  was  no 
means  at  their  command  by  which  its  fluidity  could  be  im- 
paired. This  subtle  substance  seemed  to  defy  the  usual 

92 


THE   FIXATION   OF  MERCURY  93 

attempts  to  grasp  it ;  it  rolled  about  like  a  solid  sphere,  but 
offered  no  resistance  to  the  touch,  and  when  pressed  it  split 
up  into  innumerable  smaller  globules  so  that  the  problem 
of  "fixing"  it  must  have  had  a  strange  fascination  for  the 
thoughtful  alchemist,  especially  when  he  found  that,  on 
subjection  to  a  comparatively  moderate  degree  of  heat,  this 
heavy  metal  disappeared  in  vapor  and  left  not  a  trace  behind. 

I  have  often  wondered  what  the  old  alchemists  would 
have  said  if  they  had  seen  fluid  mercury  immersed  in  a 
clear  liquid  and  brought  out  in  the  form  of  a  lump  of  solid, 
bright  metal.  For,  although  this  is  not  in  any  sense  a  so- 
lution of  the  problem,  yet  it  is  a  most  curious  sight  and  one 
which  was  rarely  seen  before  the  discovery  of  the  liquefac- 
tion of  the  gases.  To  Geber,  Basil  Valentine,  Van  Helmont, 
Helvetius,  and  men  of  their  day,  living  in  their  climate,  this 
startling  phenomenon  would  have  seemed  nothing  short  of 
a  miracle. 

In  modern  times  the  solidification  of  mercury  had  been 
frequently  witnessed  by  these  who  dwelt  in  northern  cli- 
mates and  by  the  skilful  use  of  certain  freezing  mixtures 
made  up  of  ordinary  salts,  it  is  not  difficult  to  exhibit  this 
metal  in  the  solid  state  at  any  time.  But  it  was  not  until  the 
discovery  of  the  liquefaction  of  carbonic  acid,  nitrous  oxide, 
and  other  gases  by  Faraday,  about  1823,  that  the  freezing 
of  mercury  became  a  common  lecture-room  experiment. 

In  the  year  1 862  the  writer  delivered  a  course  of  lectures 
on  chemistry,  in  the  city  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and  during 
the  progress  of  these  lectures  he  reduced  carbonic  acid  first 
to  the  liquid,  and  then  to  the  solid  state,  in  the  form  of  a 
white  snow.  The  temperature  of  this  snow  was  about 
— 80°  Cent.  ( — 112°  Fahr.)  and  when  it  was  mixed  with 
ether  and  laid  on  a  quantity  of  mercury,  the  latter  was 


94  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

quickly  frozen.  In  this  way  it  was  easy  to  make  a  ham- 
mer-head of  frozen  mercury  and  drive  a  nail  with  it. 

Another  very  interesting  experiment  was  the  freezing  of 
a  slender  triangular  bar  of  mercury  which  might  be  twisted, 
bent,  and  tied  in  a  knot.  This  was  done  by  folding  a  long 
strip  of  very  stiff  paper  so  as  to  make  an  angular  trough 
into  which  the  mercury  was  poured.  This  trough  was  then 
carefully  leveled  and  a  mixture  of  solid  carbonic  acid  and 
ether  was  placed  over  the  metal  in  the  usual  way.  In  a  few 
seconds  the  mercury  was  frozen  quite  solid  so  that  it  could 
be  lifted  out  by  means  of  two  pairs  of  wooden  forceps  and 
bent  and  knotted  at  will.  But  the  most  striking  part  of  the 
experiment  was  the  melting  of  this  bar  of  mercury  by 
means  of  a  piece  of  ice.  The  moment  the  ice  touched  the 
mercury,  the  latter  melted  and  fell  down  in  drops  in  the 
same  way  that  a  bar  of  lead  or  solder  melts  when  it  is 
touched  with  a  red-hot  iron. 

The  melted  mercury  was  allowed  to  fall  into  a  tall  ale-glass 
of  water,  the  temperature  of  which  had  been  reduced  as 
nearly  as  possible  to  the  freezing  point.  When  the  mercury 
came  in  contact  with  the  cold  water,  the  latter  began  to  freeze 
and  by  careful  manipulation  it  was  possible  to  freeze  a  tube 
of  ice  through  the  center  of  the  column  of  water.  The 
effect  of  this  under  proper  illumination  was  very  striking. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  specific  heat  or  thermal  ca- 
pacity of  mercury  is  only  about  one-thirtieth  of  that  of 
water,  it  requires  a  considerable  amount  of  melted  mercury 
to  produce  the  desired  result. 

But  these  processes  do  not  enable  us  to  fix  mercury  in 
the  alchemical  sense;  the  accomplishment  of  that  still 
remains  an  unsolved  problem,  and  it  is  more  than  likely 
that  it  will  remain  so. 


VII 

THE    UNIVERSAL   MEDICINE   AND  THE 
ELIXIR    OF    LIFE 


|OVE  of  life  is  a  characteristic  of  all  animals,  man 
included,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  an 
occasional  individual  becomes  so  dissatisfied  with 
his  environment   that  he  commits  suicide,  and 
also  in  the  face  of  the  poet's  assertion  that 

"protracted  life  is  but  protracted  woe" 

most  men  and  women  are  of  the  same  way  of  thinking  as 
Charmian,  the  attendant  on  Cleopatra,  and  "  love  long  life 
better  than  figs."  And  the  force  of  this  general  feeling  is 
appealed  to  in  the  only  one  of  the  Mosaic  commandments 
to  which  a  promise  is  attached,  the  inducement  for  honor- 
ing father  and  mother  being  "  that  thy  days  may  be  long 
in  the  land  that  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee." 

No  wonder  then  that  the  old  alchemists  dreamed  of  a 
universal  medicine  that  would  not  only  prevent  or  cure 
sickness  but  that  would  renew  the  youth  of  the  aged  and 
the  feeble,  for  in  this,  as  in  most  other  attempts  at  discov- 
ery, the  wish  was  father  to  the  thought.  That  the  renewal 
of  youth  in  the  aged  was  supposed  to  be  within  the  ability 
of  the  magicians  and  gods  of  old,  we  gather  from  the  stories 
of  Medea  and  Aeson  and  the  ivory  shoulder  of  Pelops,  as 
referred  to  in  Shakespeare,  and  explained  in  the  "  Shake- 
speare Cyclopaedia/' 

Of  the  form  of  this  supposed  elixir  we  know  very  little 

95 


96  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

for  the  language  of  the  alchemists  was  so  vague  and  mys- 
tical that  it  is  often  very  difficult  to  ascertain  their  meaning 
with  any  approach  to  certainty.  The  following,  which  is  a 
fair  sample  of  their  metaphorical  modes  of  expressing  them- 
selves, is  found  in  the  works  of  Geber.  In  one  of  his  writ- 
ings, he  exclaims :  "  Bring  me  the  six  lepers  that  I  may 
cleanse  them."  Modern  commentators  explain  this  as  being 
his  mode  of  telling  his  readers  that  he  would  convert  into 
gold  the  six  inferior  or,  as  they  were  called  by  the  alchem- 
ists, the  six  imperfect  metals.  No  wonder  that  Dr.  John- 
son adopted  the  idea  that  the  word  gibberish  (anciently 
written  geberisk)  owed  its  origin  to  an  epithet  applied  to 
the  language  of  Geber  and  his  tribe. 

Some  have  claimed  that  the  elixir  and  the  philosopher's 
stone  were  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  some  of  the  writ- 
ings of  the  old  alchemists  would  seem  to  confirm  this  view. 
Thus,  at  the  close  of  a  formula  for  preparing  the  philoso- 
pher's stone,  Carolus  Musitanus  gives  the  following  ad- 
monition : 

"Thus  friend,  you  have  a  description  of  the  universal 
medicine,  not  only  for  curing  diseases  and  prolonging  life, 
but  also  for  transmuting  all  metals  into  gold.  Give  there- 
fore thanks  to  Almighty  God,  who,  taking  pity  on  human 
calamities,  has  at  last  revealed  this  inestimable  treasure, 
and  made  it  known  for  the  benefit  of  all." 

And  Brande  tells  us  that  "nearly  all  the  alchemists 
attributed  the  power  of  prolonging  life  either  to  the  philoso- 
pher's stone  or  to  certain  preparations  of  gold,  imagining 
possibly  that  the  permanence  of  that  metal  might  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  human  system.  The  celebrated  Descartes  is 
said  to  have  supported  such  opinions ;  he  told  Sir  Kenelm 
Digby  that  although  he  would  not  venture  to  promise  im- 
mortality, he  was  certain  that  life  might  be  lengthened  to 


UNIVERSAL  MEDICINE  AND  ELIXIR  OF  LIFE      97 

the  period  of  that  of  the  Patriarchs.  His  plan,  however, 
seems  to  have  been  the  very  rational  one  of  limiting  all 
excess  of  diet  and  enjoining  punctual  and  frugal  meals." 

It  is  an  old  saying  that  history  repeats  itself.  About 
forty  years  ago  certain  medical  practitioners  strongly  urged 
the  use  of  salts  of  gold  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  and 
great  hopes  were  entertained  in  regard  to  their  efficacy. 
And  the  Keeley  gold  cure  for  drunkards  is  strongly  in 
evidence,  even  at  the  present  day. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  have  held  that  the  elixir  was 
quite  distinct  from  the  stone  by  which  metals  might  be 
transmuted  into  gold.  In  the  second  part  of  "King  Henry 
IV,"  Falstaff  (Act  III,  Scene  2,  line  355),  says  of  Shallow: 
"  it  shall  go  hard  but  I  will  make  him  a  philosopher's  two 
stones  to  me,"  and  this  saying  of  his  has  given  considerable 
trouble  to  the  commentators. 

Warburton's  explanation  of  this  expression  is,  that  "there 
was  two  stones,  one  of  which  was  a  universal  medicine  and 
the  other  a  transmuter  of  base  metals  into  gold."  And  in 
Churchyard's  "  Discourse  and  Commendation  of  those  that 
can  make  Gold,"  we  read  of  Remundus,  who 

Wrate  sundry  workes,  as  well  doth  yet  appeare 
Of  stone  for  gold,  and  shewed  plaine  and  cleare 
A  stone  for  health. 

Johnson  and  some  others  have  objected  to  this  explana- 
tion, but  it  seems  to  be  evident  that  Falstaff  meant  that  he 
would  get  health  and  wealth  from  Shallow.  He  got  the 
wealth  to  the  extent  of  a  thousand  pounds. 

The  intense  desire  which  exists  in  the  human  bosom 
for  an  elixir  that  will  cure  all  diseases,  and  prolong  life  has 
made  itself  evident,  even  in  recent  times,  and  has  called 


98  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

f 

forth  serious  efforts  on  the  part  of  men  occupying  promi« 
nent  positions  in  the  scientific  world.  Both  in  Europe  and 
in  this  country  suggestions  have  been  made  of  fluids  which, 
when  injected  into  the  veins  of  the  old  and  the  feeble, 
would  renew  youth  and  impart  fresh  strength.  But  alas  ! 
the  results  thus  far  attained  have  been  anything  but  grati- 
fying, and  the  probabilities  against  success  in  this  direction 
are  very  strong. 

The  latest  gleam  of  light  comes  from  discoveries  in  con- 
nection with  the  radioactive  elements,  as  the  reader  will  find, 
on  referring  to  Sir  William  Ramsay's  utterance,  which  is 
given  at  the  close  of  the  article  on  the  "  Transmutation  of 
the  Metals,"  on  a  preceding  page, 


ADDITIONAL   "FOLLIES" 

IN  addition  to  the  seven  "  Follies,"  of  which  an  account 
has  been  given  in  the  preceding  pages,  there  are  a  few 
which  deserve  to  be  classed  with  them,  although  they  do 
not  find  a  place  in  the  usual  lists.  These  are  known  as 

PERPETUAL  LAMPS. 

THE  ALKAHEST  OR  UNIVERSAL  SOLVENT. 

PALINGENESY. 

THE  POWDER  OF  SYMPATHY, 


PERPETUAL   OR   EVER-BURNING   LAMPS 

[ART  of  the  sepulchral  rites  of  the  ancients  con- 
sisted in  placing  lighted  lamps  in  the  tombs  or 
vaults  in  which  the  dead  were  laid,  and,  in  many 
cases,  these  lamps  were  carefully  tended  and  kept 
continually  burning.  Some  authors  have  claimed,  how- 
ever, that  these  men  of  old  were  able  to  construct  lamps 
which  burned  perpetually  and  required  no  attention.  In 
number  379  of  the  "Spectator"  there  is  an  anecdote  of 
some  one  having  opened  the  sepulcher  of  the  famous 
Rosicrucius.  There  he  discovered  a  lamp  burning  which 
a  statue  of  clock-work  struck  into  pieces.  Hence,  says  the 
writer,  the  disciples  of  this  visionary  claimed  that  he  had 
made  use  of  this  method  to  show  that  he  had  re-invented 
the  ever-burning  lamps  of  the  ancients;  And  Fortunio 
Liceti  wrote  a  book  in  which  he  collected  a  large  number 
of  stories  about  lamps,  said  to  have  been  found  burning  in 
tombs  or  vaults.  Ozanam  fills  eight  closely  printed  pages 
with  a  discussion  of  the  subject. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  explain  many  of  the  facts 
upon  which  is  based  the  claim  that  the  ancients  were  able 
to  construct  perpetual  lamps  by  the  suggestion  that  the 
light  sometimes  seen  on  the  opening  of  ancient  tombs 
may  have  been  due  to  the  phosphorescence  which  is  well 
known  to  arise  during  the  decomposition  of  animal  and 
vegetable  matter.  Decaying  wood  and  dead  fish  are  familiar 
objects  which  give  out  a  light  that  is  sufficient  to  render 
dimly  visible  the  outlines  of  surrounding  objects,  and  such 


100 


PERPETUAL  OR  EVER-BURNING   LAMPS      ;  IOI 

a  light,  seen  in  the  vicinity  of  an  old  lamp,  might  give  rise 
to  the  impression  that  the  lamp  had  been  actually  burning 
and  that  it  had  been  blown  out  by  sudden  exposure  to  a 
draft  of  air. 

Another  supposition  was  that  the  flame,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  seen,  may  have  been  caused  by  the 
ignition  of  gases  arising  from  the  decomposition  of  dead 
bodies,  and  set  on  fire  by  the  flambeaux  or  candles  of  the 
investigators,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  occurrence 
of  each  of  these  phenomena  may  have  given  a  certain 
degree  of  confirmation  to  preconceived  ideas. 

After  the  discovery  of  phosphorus  in  1669,  by  Brandt 
and  Kunckel,  it  was  employed  in  the  construction  of  lumin- 
ous phials  which  could  be  carried  in  the  pocket,  and  which 
gave  out  sufficient  light  to  enable  the  user  to  see  the 
hands  of  a  watch  on  a  dark  night.  Directions  for  making 
these  luminous  phials  are  very  simple,  and  may  be  found 
in  most  of  the  books  of  experiments  published  prior  to  the 
introduction  of  the  modern  lucifer  match.  They  were 
also  used  for  obtaining  a  light  by  means  of  the  old  matches, 
which  were  tipped  merely  with  a  little  sulphur,  and  which 
could  not  be  ignited  by  friction.  Such  a  match,  after  being 
dipped  into  one  of  these  phosphorus  bottles,  would  readily 
take  fire  by  slight  friction,  and  some  persons  preferred  this 
contrivance  to  the  old  flint  and  steel,  partly,  no  doubt, 
because  it  was  a  novelty.  But  these  bottles  were  not  in 
any  sense  perpetual,  the  light  being  due  to  the  slow  oxida- 
tion of  the  phosphorus  so  that,  in  a  comparatively  short 
time,  the  luminosity  of  the  materials  ceased.  Nevertheless, 
it  has  been  suggested  that  some  form  of  these  old  luminous 
phials  may  have  been  the  original  perpetual  lamp. 

After  the  discovery  of  the  phosphorescent  qualities  of 


102  THE    SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

barium  sulphate  or  Bolognian  phosphorus,  as  it  was  called, 
it  was  thought  that  this  might  be  a  re-discovery  of  the 
long-lost  art  of  making  perpetual  lamps.  But  it  is  well 
known  that  this  substance  loses  its  phosphorescent  power 
after  being  kept  in  the  dark  for  some  time,  and  that  occa- 
sional exposure  to  bright  sun-light  is  one  of  the  conditions 
absolutely  essential  to  its  giving  out  any  light  at  all.  This 
condition  does  not  exist  in  a  dark  tomb. 

A  few  years  ago  phosphorescent  salts  of  barium  and 
calcium  were  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  what  was 
known  as  luminous  paint.  These  materials  shine  in  the 
dark  with  brilliancy  sufficient  to  enable  the  observer  to 
read  words  and  numbers  traced  with  them,  but  regular 
exposure  to  the  rays  of  the  sun  or  some  other  bright  light 
is  absolutely  necessary  to  enable  them  to  maintain  their 
efficiency. 

More  recently  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  ancients 
may  have  been  acquainted  with  some  form  of  radio-active 
matter  like  radium,  and  that  this  was  the  secret  of  the 
lamps  in  question.  It  is  far  more  likely,  however,  that  the 
reports  of  their  perpetual  lamps  were  based  upon  mere 
errors  of  observation. 

The  perpetual  lamp  is,  in  chemistry,  the  counterpart  of 
perpetual  motion  in  mechanics  —  both  violate  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  And  just 
as  suggestions  of  impossible  movements  have  been  numer- 
ous in  the  case  of  perpetual  motion,  so  impossible  devices 
and  constructions  have  been  suggested  in  regard  to  perpet- 
ual lamps.  Prior  to  the  development,  or  even  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy,  it  was  believed 
that  it  might  be  possible  to  find  a  liquid  which  would  burn 
without  being  consumed,  and  a  wick  which  would  feed  the 


PERPETUAL  OR  EVER-BURNING   LAMPS        103 

liquid  to  the  flame  without  being  itself  destroyed.  Dr. 
Plott  suggested  naphtha  for  the  fluid  and  asbestos  for  the 
wick,  but  since  kerosene  oil,  naphtha,  gasolene,  and  other 
liquids  of  the  kind  have  become  common,  every  housewife 
knows  that  as  her  lamp  burns,  the  oil,  of  whatever  kind  it 
may  be,  disappears. 

Under  present  conditions  the  construction  of  a  perpetual 
lamp  is  not  a  severely  felt  want ;  for  constancy  and  bril- 
liancy our  present  means  of  illumination  are  sufficient  for 
almost  all  our  requirements.  Whether  or  not  it  would  be 
possible  to  gather  up  those  natural  currents  of  electricity, 
which  are  suspected  to  flow  through  and  over  the  earth,  and 
utilize  them  for  purposes  of  illumination,  however  feeble, 
it  might  be  difficult  to  decide.  But  such  means  of  perpet- 
ual electric  lighting  would  be  similar  to  a  perpetual  motion 
derived  from  a  mountain  stream.  Such  natural  means  of 
illumination  already  exist,  and  have  existed  for  ages  in  the 
fire-giving  wells  of  naphtha  which  are  found  on  the  shores 
of  the  Caspian  sea,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  east,  and 
which  have  long  been  objects  of  adoration  to  the  fire- 
worshippers. 

As  for  the  outcome  of  present  researches' into  the  prop- 
erties of  radium,  polonium,  and  similar  substances,  and 
their  possible  applications,  it  is  too  early  to  form  even  a 
surmise. 


THE    ALKAHEST    OR   UNIVERSAL    SOLVENT 

(HE  production  of  a  universal  solvent  or  alkahest 
was  one  of  the  special  problems  of  the  alchemists 
in  their  general  search  for  the  philosopher's 
stone  and  the  means  of  transmuting  the  so-called 
inferior  metals  into  gold  and  silver.  Their  idea  of  the 
way  in  which  it  would  aid  them  to  attain  these  ends  does 
not  seem  to  be  very  clearly  stated  in  any  work  that  I  have 
consulted  ;  probably  they  thought  that  a  universal  solvent 
would  wash  away  all  impurities  from  common  materials 
and  leave  in  absolute  purity  the  higher  substance,  which 
constituted  the  gold  of  the  adepts.  But  whatever  their 
particular  object  may  have  been,  it  is  well  known  that  much 
time  and  labor  were  expended  in  the  fruitless  search. 

The  futility  of  such  attempts  was  very  well  exposed  by 
the  cynical  sceptic,  who  asked  them  what  kind  of  vessel 
could  they  provide  for  holding  such  a  liquid  ?  If  its  solvent 
powers  are  such  that  it  dissolves  everything,  it  is  very  evi- 
dent that  it  would  dissolve  the  very  material  of  the  vessel 
in  which  it  must  be  placed. 

When  hydrofluoric  acid  became  a  subject  of  investigation 
it  was  thought  that  its  characteristics  approached,  more 
nearly  than  those  of  any  other  substance  known,  to  those 
of  the  universal  solvent,  and  the  very  difficulty  above  sug- 
gested, presented  itself  strongly  to  the  chemists  who  ex- 
perimented with  it.  Not  only  common  metals  but  glass 
and  porcelain  were  acted  upon  by  this  wonderfully  ener- 
getic liquid  and  when  attempts  were  made  to  isolate  the 

104 


THE  ALKAHEST   OR   UNIVERSAL  SOLVENT     105 

fluorine,  even  the  platinum  electrodes  were  corroded  and 
destroyed.  Vessels  of  pure  silver  and  of  lead  served  toler- 
ably well,  but  Davy  suggested  that  the  most  scientific 
method  of  constructing  a  containing  vessel  would  be  to  use 
a  compound  in  which  fluorine  was  already  present  to  the 
point  of  saturation.  As  there  is  a  limit  to  the  amount  of 
fluorine  with  which  any  base  can  combine,  such  a  vessel 
would  be  proof  against  its  solvent  action.  I  am  not  aware, 
however,  that  the  suggestion  was  ever  carried  into  actual 
practice  with  success. 


PALINGENESY 

HIS  singular  delusion  may  have  been  partly  due 
to  errors  of  observation,  the  instruments  and 
methods  of  former  times  having  been  notably 
crude  and  unreliable.  This  fact,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  wild  theories  upon  which  the  natural 
sciences  of  the  middle  ages  were  based,  is  a  sufficient  ex- 
planation of  some  of  the  extraordinary  statements  made  by 
Kircher,  Schott,  Digby,  and  others. 

By  palingenesy  these  writers  meant  a  certain  chemical 
process  by  means  of  which  a  plant  or  an  animal  might  be 
revived  from  its  ashes.  In  other  words  a  sort  of  material 
resurrection.  Most  of  the  accounts  given  by  the  old  au- 
thors go  no  further  than  to  assert  that  by  proper  methods 
the  ashes  of  plants,  when  treated  with  water,  produce  small 
forests  of  ferns  and  pines.  Thus,  an  English  chemist, 
named  Coxe,  asserts  that  having  extracted  and  dissolved 
the  essential  salts  of  fern,  and  then  filtered  the  liquor,  he 
observed,  after  leaving  it  at  rest  for  five  or  six  weeks,  a 
vegetation  of  small  ferns  adhering  to  the  bottom  of  the 
vessel.  The  same  chemist,  having  mixed  northern  potash 
with  an  equal  quantity  of  sal  ammoniac,  saw,  some  time 
after,  a  small  forest  of  pines  and  other  trees,  with  which  he 
was  not  acquainted,  rising  from  the  bottom  of  the  vessel. 

And  Kircher  tells  us  in  his  "  Ars  Magnetica"  that  he 
had  a  long-necked  phial,  hermetically  sealed,  containing 
the  ashes  of  a  plant  which  he  could  revive  at  pleasure  by 
means  of  heat ;  and  that  he  showed  this  wonderful  phe- 

1 06 


PALINGENESY  IO? 

nomenon  to  Christina,  Queen  of  Sweden,  who  was  highly 
delighted  with  it.  Unfortunately  he  left  this  valuable 
curiosity  one  cold  day  in  his  window  and  it  was  entirely 
destroyed  by  the  frost.  Father  Schott  also  asserts  that 
he  saw  this  chemical  wonder  which,  according  to  his  ac- 
count, was  a  rose  revived  from  its  ashes.  And  he  adds 
that  a  certain  prince  having  requested  Kircher  to  make 
him  one  of  the  same  kind,  he  chose  rather  to  give  up  his 
own  than  to  repeat  the  operation. 

Even  the  celebrated  Boyle,  though  not  very  favorable  to 
palingenesy,  relates  that  having  dissolved  in  water  some 
verdigris,  which,  as  is  well  known,  is  produced  by  combin- 
ing copper  with  the  acid  of  vinegar,  and  having  caused  this 
water  to  congeal,  by  means  of  artificial  cold,  he  observed,  at 
the  surface  of  the  ice,  small  figures  which  had  an  exact 
resemblance  to  vines. 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  in 
Boyle's  time  almost  all  vinegar  was  really  what  its  name 
implies  —  sour  wine  (vin  aigre)  —  and  verdegris  or  copper 
acetate  was  generally  prepared  by  exposing  copper  plates 
to  the  action  of  refuse  grapes  which  had  been  allowed  to 
ferment  and  become  sour.  Therefore  to  him  it  might  not 
have  seemed  so  very  improbable  that  the  green  crystals 
which  appeared  on  the  surface  of  the  ice  were,  in  reality, 
minute  resuscitated  grape-vines. 

The  explanation  of  these  facts  given  by  Father  Kircher 
is  worthy  of  the  science  of  the  times.  He  tells  us  that 
the  seminal  virtue  of  each  mixture  is  contained  in  its  salts 
and  these  salts,  unalterable  by  their  nature,  when  put  in 
motion  by  heat,  rise  in  the  vessel  through  the  liquor  in 
which  they  are  diffused.  Being  then  at  liberty  to  arrange 
themselves  at  pleasure,  they  place  themselves  in  that  order 


108  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

in  which  they  would  be  placed  by  the  effect  of  vegetation, 
or  the  same  as  they  occupied  before  the  body  to  which  they 
belonged  had  been  decomposed  by  the  fire ;  in  short,  they 
form  a  plant,  or  the  phantom  of  a  plant,  which  has  a  per- 
fect resemblance  to  the  one  destroyed. 

That  the  operators  have  here  mistaken  for  true  vegetable 
growth  the  fern-like  crystals  of  the  salts  which  exist  in  the 
ashes  of  all  plants  is  very  obvious.  Their  knowledge  of 
plant  structure  was  exceedingly  limited  and  their  micro- 
scopes were  so  imperfect  that  imagination  had  free  scope. 
As  seen  under  our  modern  microscopes,  there  are  few  pret- 
tier sights  than  the  crystallization  of  such  salts  as  sal 
ammoniac,  potassic  nitrate,  barium  chloride,  etc.  The  crys- 
tals are  actually  seen  to  grow  and  it  would  not  require  a 
very  great  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  convince  one  that 
the  growth  is  due  to  a  living  organism.  Indeed,  this  view 
has  actually  been  taken  in  an  article  which  recently  ap- 
peared in  a  prominent  magazine.  The  writer  of  that  article 
sees  no  difference  between  the  mere  aggregation  of  inor- 
ganic particles  brought  together  by  voltaic  action  and  the 
building  up  of  vital  structures  under  the  influence  of  or- 
ganic forces.  This  is  simply  materialism  run  mad. 

Perhaps  the  finest  illustration  of  such  crystallization  is 
to  be  found  in  the  deposition  of  silver  from  a  solution  of 
the  nitrate  as  seen  under  the  microscope.  A  drop  of  the 
solution  is  placed  on  a  glass  slide  and  while  the  observer 
watches  it  through  a  low  power,  a  piece  of  copper  wire  or, 
preferably,  a  minute  quantity  of  the  amalgam  of  tin  and 
mercury,  such  as  is  used  for  "  silvering "  cheap  looking 
glasses,  is  brought  into  contact  with  it.  Chemical  decom- 
position at  once  sets  in  and  then  the  silver  thus  deposited 
forms  one  element  of  a  very  minute  voltaic  couple  and 


PALINGENESY 


109 


fresh  crystals  of  silver  are  deposited  upon  the  silver  already 
thrown  down.  When  the  illumination  of  this  object  under 
the  microscope  is  properly  managed,  the  appearance,  which 
resembles  that  shown  in  Fig.  18,  is  exceedingly  brilliant, 
and  beautiful  beyond  description. 

That  imagination  played  strange  pranks  in  the  observa- 
tions of  the  older  microscopists  is  shown  by  some  of  the 
engravings  found  in  their  books.  I  have  now  before  me  a 


Fig.  18. 


thick,  dumpy  quarto  in  which  the  so-called  seminal  animal- 
cules are  depicted  as  little  men  and  women,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that,  to  the  eye  of  this  early  observer,  they  had  that 
appearance.  But  the  microscopists  of  to-day  know  better. 
Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  whose  name  is  associated  with  the 
Sympathetic  Powder,  tells  us  that  he  took  the  ashes  of 
burnt  crabs,  dissolved  them  in  water  and,  after  subjecting 
the  whole  to  a  tedious  process,  small  crabs  were  produced 
in  the  liquor.  These  were  nourished  with  blood  from  the 


110  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

ox,  and,  after  a  time,  left  to  themselves  in  some  stream 
where  they  throve  and  grew  large. 

Now,  although  Evelyn,  in  his  diary,  declares  that  "  Sir 
Kenelm  was  an  errant  mountebank,"  it  is  quite  possible  that 
he  was  honest  in  his  account  of  his  experiments  and  that  he 
was  merely  led  astray  by  the  imperfection  of  his  instru- 
ments of  observation.  It  is  more  than  likely  that  the 
creatures  which  Digby  saw  were  entomostraca  introduced 
in  the  form  of  ova  which,  unless  a  good  microscope  be  used, 
are  quite  invisible.  These  would  develop  rapidly  and  might 
easily  be  mistaken  for  some  species  of  crab,  though,  when 
examined  with  proper  instruments,  all  resemblance  vanishes. 
When  let  loose  in  a  running  stream  it  would  evidently  be 
impossible  to  trace  their  identity  and  follow  their  growth. 

But  while  some  of  these  stories  may  have  originated  in 
errors  of  observation  this  will  hardly  explain  some  of  the 
statements  made  by  those  who  have  advocated  this  strange 
doctrine.  Father  Schott,  in  his  "Physica  Curiosa,"  gives 
an  account  of  the  resurrection  of  a  sparrow  and  actually 
gives  an  engraving  in  which  the  bird  is  shown  in  a  bottle 
revived ! 

Although  the  subject,  of  itself,  is  not  worthy  of  a  mo- 
ment's consideration,  it  deserves  attention  as  an  illustration 
of  the  extraordinary  vagaries  into  which  the  human  mind 
is  liable  to  fall. 


THE  POWDER   OF   SYMPATHY 

HIS  curious  occult  method  of  curing  wounds  is 
indissolubly  associated  with  the  name  of  Sir 
Kenelm  Digby  (born  1603,  died  1665),  though 
it  was  undoubtedly  in  use  long  before  his  time. 
He  himself  tells  us  that  he  learned  to  make  and  apply  the 
drug  from  a  Carmelite,  who  had  traveled  in  the  east,  and 
whom  he  met  in  Florence,  in  1622.  The  descendants  of 
Digby  are  still  prominent  in  England,  and  O.  W.  Holmes, 
in  his  "  One  Hundred  Days  in  Europe,"  tells  us  that  he 
had  met  a  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  a  descendant  of  the  famous 
Sir  Kenelm  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  that  he  could 
hardly  refrain  from  asking  him  if  he  had  any  of  his  ancestor's 
famous  powder  in  his  pocket. 

Digby  was  a  student  of  chemistry,  or  at  least  of  the 
chemistry  of  those  days,  and  wrote  books  of  Recipes  and 
the  making  of  "  Methington  [metheglin  or  mead  ?]  Syder, 
etc."  He  was,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  previous  article, 
a  believer  in  palingenesy  and  made  experiments  with  a  view 
to  substantiate  that  strange  doctrine.  Evelyn  calls  him  an 
"errant  quack,"  and  he  may  have  been  given  to  quackery, 
but  then  the  loose  scientific  ideas  of  those  days  allowed  a 
wide  range  in  drawing  conclusions  which,  though  they  seem 
absurd  to  us,  may  have  appeared  to  be  quite  reasonable  to 
the  men  of  that  time. 

From  his  book  on  the  subject,1  we  learn  that  the  wound 

1  Touching  the  Cure  of  Wounds  by  the  Powder  of  Sympathy.  With 
Instructions  how  to  make  the  said  Powder.  Rendered  faithfully  out  of 
French  into  English  by  R.  White,  Gent.  London,  1658. 

Ill 


112  THE   SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

was  never  to  be  brought  into  contact  with  the  powder.  A 
bandage  was  to  be  taken  from  the  wound,  immersed  in  the 
powder,  and  kept  there  until  the  wound  healed. 

This  beats  the  absent  treatment  of  Christian  Science ! 

The  powder  was  simply  pulverized  vitriol,  that  is,  ferric 
sulphate,  or  sulphate  of  iron. 

There  was  another  and  probably  an  older  method  of 
using  sympathetic  powders  and  salves ;  this  was  to  apply 
the  supposed  curative  to  the  weapon  which  caused  the 
wound,  instead  of  the  wound  itself.  In  the  "  Lay  of  the 
Last  Minstrel,"  Scott  gives  an  account  of  the  way  in  which 
the  Lady  of  Buccleuch  applied  this  occult  surgery  to  the 
wound  of  William  of  Deloraine  : 

"  She  drew  the  splinter  from  the  wound, 

And  with  a  charm  she  stanched  the  blood. 

She  bade  the  gash  be  cleansed  and  bound : 

No  longer  by  his  couch  she  stood  ; 
But  she  has  ta'en  the  broken  lance. 

And  washed  it  from  the  clotted  gore, 

And  salved  the  splinter  o'er  and  o'er. 
William  of  Deloraine,  in  trance, 
Whene'er  she  turned  it  round  and  round 
Twisted  as  if  she  galled  his  wound. 

Then  to  her  maidens  she  did  say, 
That  he  should  be  whole  man  and  sound, 

Within  the  course  of  a  night  and  day. 
Full  long  she  toiled,  for  she  did  rue 

Mishap  to  friend  so  stout  and  true." l 

That  no  direct  benefit  could  have  been  derived  from 
such  a  mode  of  treatment  must  be  obvious,  but  De  Morgan 
very  plausibly  claims  that  in  the  then  state  of  surgical  and 
medical  knowledge,  it  was  really  the  very  best  that  could 
have  been  adopted.  His  argument  is  as  follows :  "  The 

1  Canto  III.     Stanza  23. 


THE   POWDER  OF   SYMPATHY  113 

sympathetic  powder  was  that  which  cured  by  anointing  the 
weapon  with  its  salve  instead  of  the  wound.  I  have  been 
long  convinced  that  it  was  efficacious.  The  directions 
were  to  keep  the  wound  clean  and  cool,  and  to  take  care  of 
diet,  rubbing  the  salve  on  the  knife  or  sword.  If  we  re- 
member the  dreadful  notions  upon  drugs  which  prevailed, 
both  as  to  quantity  and  quality,  we  shall  readily  see  that 
any  way  of  not  dressing  the  wound,  would  have  been  use- 
ful. If  the  physicians  had  taken  the  hint,  had  been  careful 
of  diet,  etc.,  and  had  poured  the  little  barrels  of  medicine 
down  the  throat  of  a  practicable  doll,  they  would  have  had 
their  magical  cures  as  well  as  the  surgeons.  Matters  are 
much  improved  now;  the  quantity  of  medicine  given,  even 
by  orthodox  physicians,  would  have  been  called  infinitesi- 
mal by  their  professional  ancestors.  Accordingly,  the 
College  of  Physicians  has  a  right  to  abandon  its  motto, 
which  is,  Ars  longay  vita  brevis,  meaning,  Practice  is  long, 
so  life  is  short" 

As  set  forth  by  Digby  and  others,  the  use  of  the  Powder 
of  Sympathy  is  free  from  all  taint  of  witchcraft  or  magic, 
but,  in  another  form,  it  was  wholly  dependent  upon  incanta- 
tions and  other  magical  performances.  This  idea  of  sym- 
pathetic action  was  even  carried  so  far  as  to  lead  to  attempts 
to  destroy  or  injure  those  whom  the  operator  disliked.  In 
some  cases  this  was  done  by  moulding  an  image  in  wax 
which,  when  formed  under  proper  occult  influences,  was 
supposed  to  have  the  power  of  transferring  to  the  victim 
any  injuries  inflicted  on  the  image.  Into  such  images  pins 
and  knives  were  thrust  in  the  hope  that  the  living  original 
would  suffer  the  same  pains  and  mutilations  that  would  be 
inflicted  if  the  knives  or  pins  were  thrust  into  him,  and 
sometimes  the  waxen  form  was  held  before  the  fire  and 


114  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

allowed  to  melt  away  slowly  in  the  hope  that  the  prototype 
would  also  waste  away,  and  ultimately  die.  Shakespeare 
alludes  to  this  in  the  play  of  King  John.  In  Act  v.,  Scene 
4,  line  24,  Melun  says : 

"  A  quantity  of  life 

Which  bleeds  away,  even  as  a  form  of  wax, 
Resolveth  from  his  figure  'gainst  the  fire  ?  " 

And  Hollinshed  tells  us  that  "it  was  alleged  against 
Dame  Eleanor  Cobham  and  her  confederates  that  they  had 
devised  an  image  of  wax,  representing  the  king,  which,  by 
their  sorcerie,  by  little  and  little  consumed,  intending 
thereby,  in  conclusion,  to  waste  and  destroy  the  king's 
person." 

In  these  cases,  however,  the  operator  always  depended 
upon  certain  occult  or  demoniacal  influences,  or,  in  other 
words,  upon  the  art  of  magic,  and  therefore  examples  of 
this  kind  do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
volume.  In  the  case  of  the  Powder  of  Sympathy  the 
results  were  supposed  to  be  due  entirely  to  natural  causes. 


A   SMALL   BUDGET  OF  PARADOXES, 
ILLUSIONS,   AND    MARVELS 


THE   FOURTH  DIMENSION   AND   THE   POSSI- 
BILITY   OF   A   NEW    SENSE   AND   NEW 
SENSE-ORGAN 

|HIS  subject  has  now  found  its  way  not  only  into 
semi-scientific  works  but  into  our  general  litera- 
ture and  magazines.  Even  our  novel-writers 
have  used  suggestions  from  this  hypothesis  as 
part  of  the  machinery  of  their  plots  so  that  it  properly 
finds  a  place  amongst  the  subjects  discussed  in  this 
volume. 

Various  attempts  have  been  made  to  explain  what  is 
meant  by  "the  fourth  dimension,"  but  it  would  seem  that 
thus  far  the  explanations  which  have  been  offered  are,  to 
most  minds,  vague  and  incomprehensible,  this  latter  condi- 
tion arising  from  the  fact  that  the  ordinary  mind  is  utterly 
unable  to  conceive  of  any  such  thing  as  a  dimension  which 
cannot  be  defined  in  terms  of  the  three  with  which  we  are 
already  familiar.  And  I  confess  at  the  start  that  I  labor 
under  the  superlative  difficulty  of  not  being  able  to  form 
any  conception  of  a  fourth  dimension,  and  for  this  incapac- 
ity my  only  consolation  is,  that  in  this  respect  I  am  not  alone. 
I  have  conversed  upon  the  subject  with  many  able  mathe- 
maticians and  physicists,  and  in  every  case  I  found  that 
they  were  in  the  same  predicament  as  myself,  and  where  I 
have  met  men  who  professed  to  think  it  easy  to  form  a 
conception  of  a  fourth  dimension,  I  have  found  their  ideas, 
not  only  in  regard  to  the  new  hypothesis,  but  to  its  corre- 

117 


IlS  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

lations  with  generally  accepted  physical  facts,  to  be  nebu- 
lous and  inaccurate. 

It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  because  myself  and 
some  others  cannot  form  such  a  clear  conception  of  a  fourth 
dimension  as  we  can  of  the  third,  that,  therefore,  the  theory 
is  erroneous  and  the  alleged  conditions  non-existent.  Some 
minds  of  great  power  and  acuteness  have  been  incapable 
of  mastering  certain  branches  of  science.  Thus  Diderot, 
who  was  associated  with  d'Alembert,  the  famous  mathe- 
matician, in  the  production  of  "  L' Encyclopedic,"  and  who 
was  not  only  a  man  of  acknowledged  ability,  but  who,  at  one 
time,  taught  mathematics  and  wrote  upon  several  mathe- 
matical subjects,  seems  to  have  been  unable  to  master  the 
elements  of  algebra.  The  following  anecdote  regarding 
his  deficiency  in  this  respect  is  given  by  Thi^bault  and 
indorsed  by  Professor  De  Morgan:  At  the  invitation  of 
the  Empress,  Catherine  II,  Diderot  paid  a  visit  to  the 
Russian  court.  He  was  a  brilliant  conversationalist  and 
being  quite  free  with  his  opinions,  he  gave  the  younger 
members  of  the  court  circle  a  good  deal  of  lively  atheism. 
The  Empress  herself  was  very  much  amused,  but  some  of 
her  councillors  suggested  that  it  might  be  desirable  to 
check  these  expositions  of  strange  doctrines.  As  Cathe- 
rine did  not  like  to  put  a  direct  muzzle  on  her  guest's  tongue, 
the  following  plot  was  contrived.  Diderot  was  informed 
that  a  learned  mathematician  was  in  possession  of  an  al- 
gebraical demonstration  of  the  existence  of  God  and  would 
give  it  to  him  before  all  the  court  if  he  desired  to  hear  it. 
Diderot  gladly  consented,  and  although  the  name  of  the 
mathematician  is  not  given,  it  is  well  known  to  have  been 
Euler.  He  advanced  toward  Diderot,  and  said  in  French, 
gravely,  and  in  a  tone  of  perfect  conviction :  "  Monsieur, 


THE  FOURTH   DIMENSION  119 

=  x>   therefore,   God  exists ;    reply ! "    Diderot,    to 

n 

whom  algebra  was  Hebrew,  was  embarrassed  and  discon- 
certed, while  peals  of  laughter  rose  on  all  sides.  He  asked 
permission  to  return  to  France  at  once,  which  was  granted. 
Even  such  a  mind  as  that  of  Buckle,  who  was  generally 
acknowledged  to  be  a  keen-sighted  thinker,  could  not  form 
any  idea  of  a  geometrical  line  —  that  is,  of  a  line  without 
breadth  or  thickness,  a  conception  which  has  been  grasped 
clearly  and  accurately  by  thousands  of  school-boys.  He 
therefore  asserts,  positively,  that  there  are  no  lines  without 
breadth,  and  comes  to  the  following  extraordinary  conclu- 
sions : 

"  Since,  however,  the  breadth  of  the  faintest  line  is  so 
slight  as  to  be  incapable  of  measurement,  except  by  an 
instrument  under  the  microscope,  it  follows  that  the  as- 
sumption that  there  can  be  lines  without  breadth  is  so 
nearly  true  that  our  senses,  when  unassisted  by  art,  can 
not  detect  the  error.  Formerly,  and  until  the  invention  of 
the  micrometer,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was  im- 
possible to  detect  it  at  all.  Hence,  the  conclusions  of  the 
geometrician  approximate  so  closely  to  truth  that  we  are 
justified  in  accepting  them  as  true.  The  flaw  is  too  minute 
to  be  perceived.  But  that  there  is  a  flaw  appears  to  me 
certain.  It  appears  certain  that,  whenever  something  is 
kept  back  in  the  premises,  something  must  be  wanting 
in  the  conclusion.  In  all  such  cases,  the  field  of  inquiry 
has  not  been  entirely  covered;  and  part  of  the  preliminary 
facts  being  suppressed,  it  must,  I  think,  be  admitted  that 
complete  truth  be  unattainable,  and  that  no  problem  in 
geometry  has  been  exhaustively  solved."1 

The  fallacy  which  underlies  Mr.  Buckle's  contention  is 
thus  clearly  exposed  by  the  author  of  "The  Natural  His- 
tory of  Hell." 

1  «*  History  of  Civilization  in  England."  American  edition,  VoL 
II,  page  342. 


120  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

"  If  it  be  conceded  that  lines  have  breadth,  then  all  we 
have  to  do  is  to  assign  some  definite  breadth  to  each  line 
—  say  the  one-thousandth  of  an  inch  —  and  allow  for  it. 
But  the  lines  of  the  geometer  have  no  breadth.  All  the 
micrometers  of  which  Mr.  Buckle  speaks  depend,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  upon  lines  for  their  graduations,  and 
the  positions  of  these  lines  are  indicated  by  rulings  or 
scratches.  Now,  in  even  the  finest  of  these  rulings,  as, 
for  example,  those  of  Nobert  or  Fasoldt,  where  the  ruling 
or  scratching,  together  with  its  accompanying  space, 
amounts  to  no  more  than  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sandth part  of  an  inch,  the  scratch  has  a  perceptible  breadth. 
But  this  broad  scratch  is  not  the  line  recognized  by  the 
microscopist,  to  say  nothing  of  the  geometer.  The  true 
line  is  a  line  which  lies  hi  the  very  center  of  this  scratch 
and  it  is  certain  that  this  central  line  has  absolutely  no 
breadth  at  all."  x 

It  must  be  very  evident  that  if  Mr.  Buckle's  contention 
that  geometrical  lines  have  breadth  were  true,  then  some 
of  the  fundamental  axioms  of  geometry  must  be  false.  It 
could  no  longer  hold  true  that  "  the  whole  is  equal  to  all  its 
parts  taken  together,"  for  if  we  divide  a  square  or  a  circle 
into  two  parts  by  means  of  a  line  which  has  breadth,  the 
two  parts  cannot  be  equal  to  the  whole  as  it  formerly  was. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Buckle's  lines  are  saw-cuts,  not 
geometrical  lines.  Geometrical  points,  lines,  and  surfaces, 
have  no  material  existence  and  can  have  none.  An  ideal 
conception  and  a  material  existence  are  two  very  different 
things. 

A  very  interesting  book 2  has  been  written  on  the  move- 
ments and  feelings  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  world  of  two  di- 
mensions. Nevertheless,  if  we  know  anything  at  all,  we 
know  that  such  a  world  could  not  have  any  actual  existence 

1  "The  Natural  History  of  Hell,"  by  John  Phillipson,  page  37. 
1  "  Flatland,"  by  E.  A.  Abbott.     London,  1884. 


THE   FOURTH   DIMENSION  I2i 

and  when  we  attempt  to  form  any  mental  conception  of  it 
and  its  inhabitants,  we  are  compelled  to  adopt,  to  a  certain 
extent,  the  idea  of  the  third  dimension. 

But  at  the  same  time  we  must  remember  that  since  the 
ordinary  mechanic  and  the  school-boy  who  has  studied  ge- 
ometry, find  no  difficulty  in  conceiving  of  points  without 
magnitude,  lines  without  breadth,  and  surfaces  without 
thickness  —  conceptions  which  seem  to  have  been  impos- 
sible to  Buckle,  a  man  of  acknowledged  ability  —  it  may  be 
possible  that  minds  constituted  slightly  differently  from 
that  of  myself  and  some  others,  might,  perhaps,  be  able  to 
form  a  conception  of  a  fourth  dimension. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  speculations  of  those 
who  have  woven  this  idea  into  romances  and  day-dreams  we 
find  that  the  hypothesis  of  a  fourth  dimension  has  been 
presented  by  two  very  different  classes  of  thinkers,  and 
the  discussion  has  been  carried  on  from  two  very  different 
standpoints. 

The  first  suggestion  of  this  hypothesis  seems  to  have 
come  from  Kant  and  Gauss  and  to  have  had  a  purely  meta- 
physical origin,  for,  although  attempts  have  been  made  to 
trace  the  idea  back  to  the  famous  phantoms  of  Plato,  it  is 
evident  that  the  ideas  then  advanced  had  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  the  modern  theory  of  the  existence  of  a  fourth 
dimension.  The  first  hint  seems  to  have  been  a  purely 
mathematical  one  and  did  not  attract  any  very  general  at- 
tention. It  was,  however,  seized  upon  by  a  certain  branch 
of  the  transcendentalists,  closely  allied  to  the  spiritualists, 
and  was  exploited  by  them  as  a  possible  explanation  of 
some  curious  and  mysterious  phenomena  and  feats  exhibited 
by  certain  Indian  and  European  devotees.  This  may  have 
been  done  merely  for  the  purpose  of  mystifying  and  con- 


122  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

founding  their  adversaries  by  bringing  forward  a  striking 
illustration  of  Hamlet's  famous  dictum  —  " 

*'  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy." 

A  very  fair  statement  of  this  view  is  thus  given  by 
Edward  Carpenter : l 

"  There  is  another  idea  which  modern  science  has  been 
familiarizing  us  with,  and  which  is  bringing  us  towards 
the  same  conception  —  that,  namely,  of  the  fourth  dimen- 
sion. The  supposition  that  the  actual  world  has  four 
space-dimensions  instead  of  three  makes  many  things 
conceivable  which  otherwise  would  be  incredible.  It  makes 
it  conceivable  that  apparently  separate  objects,  e.  g.,  dis- 
tinct people,  are  really  physically  united;  that  things  ap- 
parently sundered  by  enormous  distances  of  space  are 
really  quite  together;  that  a  person  or  other  object  might 
pass  in  and  out  of  a  closed  room  without  disturbance  of 
walls,  doors  or  windows,  etc.,  and  if  this  fourth  dimension 
were  to  become  a  factor  of  our  consciousness  it  is  obvious 
that  we  should  have  means  of  knowledge  which,  to  the 
ordinary  sense,  would  appear  simply  miraculous.  There  is 
much,  apparently,  to  suggest  that  the  consciousness  at- 
tained to  by  the  Indian  gnanis  in  their  degree,  and  by 
hypnotic  subjects  in  theirs,  is  of  this  fourth  dimensional 
order. 

"  As  a  solid  is  related  to  its  own  surface,  so,  it  would 
appear,  is  the  cosmic  consciousness  related  to  the  ordinary 
consciousness.  The  phases  of  the  personal  consciousness 
are  but  different  facets  of  the  other  consciousness;  and 
experiences  which  seem  remote  from  each  other  in  the  in- 
dividual are  perhaps  all  equally  near  in  the  universal. 
Space  itself,  as  we  know  it,  may  be  practically  annihilated 
in  the  consciousness  of  a  larger  space,  of  which  it  is  but  the 
superficies;  and  a  person  living  in  London  may  not  un- 
likely find  that  he  has  a  back  door  opening  quite  simply 
and  unceremoniously  out  in  Bombay." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  mathematicians,  looking  at  it  as 
a  purely  speculative  idea,  have  endeavored  to  arrive  at 

1 "  From  Adam's  Peak  to  Elephanta  —  "  page  160. 


THE   FOURTH   DIMENSION  123 

definite  conclusions  in  regard  to  what  would  be  the  condi- 
tion of  things  if  the  universe  really  exists  in  a  fourth,  or 
even  in  some  higher  dimension.  Professor  W.  W.  R.  Ball 
tells  us  that 

"  the  conception  of  a  world  of  more  than  three  dimensions 
is  facilitated  by  the  fact  that  there  is  no  difficulty  in  imagin- 
ing a  world  confined  to  only  two  dimensions  —  which  we 
may  take  for  simplicity  to  be  plane  —  though  equally 
well  it  might  be  a  spherical  or  other  surface.  We  may 
picture  the  inhabitants  of  flatland  as  moving  either  on  the 
surface  of  a  plane  or  between  two  parallel  and  adjacent 
planes.  They  could  move  in  any  direction  along  the 
plane,  but  they  could  not  move  perpendicularly  to  it,  and 
would  have  no  consciousness  that  such  a  motion  was 
possible.  We  may  suppose  them  to  have  no  thickness, 
in  which  case  they  would  be  mere  geometrical  abstractions ; 
or  we  may  think  of  them  as  having  a  small  but  uniform 
thickness,  in  which  case  they  would  be  realities." 

"  If  an  inhabitant  of  flatland  was  able  to  move  in  three 
dimensions,  he  would  be  credited  with  supernatural  powers 
by  those  who  were  unable  so  to  move ;  for  he  could  appear 
or  disappear  at  will ;  could  (so  far  as  they  could  tell)  create 
matter  or  destroy  it,  and  would  be  free  from  so  many  con- 
straints to  which  the  other  inhabitants  were  subject  that  his 
actions  would  be  inexplicable  to  them." 

"  Our  conscious  life  is  in  three  dimensions,  and  natur- 
ally the  idea  occurs  whether  there  may  not  be  a  fourth 
dimension.  No  inhabitant  of  flatland  could  realize  what 
life  in  three  dimensions  would  mean,  though,  if  he  evolved 
an  analytical  geometry  applicable  to  the  world  in  which 
he  lived,  he  might  be  able  to  extend  it  so  as  to  obtain  results 
true  of  that  world  in  three  dimensions  which  would  be  to 
him  unknown  and  inconceivable.  Similarly  we  cannot 
realize  what  life  in  four  dimensions  is  like,  though  we  can 
use  analytical  geometry  to  obtain  results  true  of  that  world, 
or  even  of  worlds  of  higher  dimensions.  Moreover,  the 
analogy  of  our  position  to  the  inhabitants  of  flatland  en- 


124  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

ables  us  to  form  some  idea  of  how  inhabitants  of  space  of 
four  dimensions  would  regard  us." 

• 
•  ••••• 

"  If  a  finite  solid  was  passed  slowly  through  flatland,  the 
inhabitants  would  be  conscious  only  of  that  part  of  it  which 
was  in  their  plane.  Thus  they  would  see  the  shape  of  the 
object  gradually  change  and  ultimately  vanish.  In  the 
same  way,  if  a  body  of  four  dimensions  was  passed  through 
our  space,  we  should  be  conscious  of  it  only  as  a  solid 
body  (namely,  the  section  of  the  body  by  our  space)  whose 
form  and  appearance  gradually  changed  and  perhaps  ul- 
timately vanished.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  birth, 
growth,  life,  and  death  of  animals,  may  be  explained  thus 
as  the  passage  of  finite  four-dimensional  bodies  through 
our  three-dimensional  space." 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  construct  drawings  and 
models  showing  a  four-dimensional  body.  The  success  of 
such  attempts  has  not  been  very  encouraging. 

Investigators  of  this  class  look  upon  the  actuality  of  a 
fourth  dimension  as  an  unsolved  question,  but  they  hold 
that,  provided  we  could  see  our  way  clear  to  adopt  it,  it 
would  open  up  wondrous  possibilities  in  the  way  of  explain- 
ing abstruse  and  hitherto  inexplicable  physical  conditions 
and  phenomena. 

There  is  obviously  no  limit  to  such  speculations,  provided 
we  assume  the  existence  of  such  conditions  as  are  needed 
for  our  purpose.  Too  often,  however,  those  who  indulge 
in  such  day-dreams  begin  by  assuming  the  impossible,  and 
end  by  imagining  the  absurd. 

We  have  so  little  positive  knowledge  in  regard  to  the 
ultimate  constitution  of  matter  and  even  in  regard  to  the 
actual  character  of  the  objects  around  us,  which  are  revealed 
to  us  through  our  senses,  that  the  field  in  which  our  imagin- 
ation may  revel  is  boundless.  Perhaps  some  day  the 


THE  FOURTH   DIMENSION  12$ 

humanity  of  the  present  will  merge  itself  into  a  new  race, 
endowed  with  new  senses,  whose  revelations  are  to  us,  for 
the  present,  at  least,  utterly  inconceivable. 

The  possibility  of  such  a  development  may  be  rendered 
more  clear  if  we  imagine  the  existence  of  a  race  devoid  of 
the  sense  of  hearing,  and  without  the  organs  necessary  to 
that  sense.  They  certainly  could  form  no  idea  of  sound, 
far  less  could  they  enjoy  music  or  oratory,  such  as  afford 
us  so  much  delight.  And,  if  one  or  more  of  our  race  should 
visit  these  people,  how  very  strange  to  them  would  appear 
those  curious  appendages,  called  ears,  which  project  from 
the  sides  of  our  heads,  and  how  inexplicable  to  them  would 
be  the  movements  and  expressions  of  intelligence  which  we 
show  when  we  talk  or  sing  ?  It  is  certain  that  no  devel- 
opment of  the  physical  or  mathematical  sciences  could  give 
them  any  idea  whatever  of  the  sensations  which  sound,  in 
its  various  modifications,  imparts  to  us,  and  neither  can  any 
progress  in  that  direction  enable  us  to  acquire  any  idea  of 
the  revelations  which  a  new  sense  might  open  up  to  us. 
Nevertheless,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  development  of  new 
senses  and  new  sense  organs  is  not  only  more  likely  to  be 
possible,  but  that  it  is  actually  more  probable,  than  any 
revelation  in  regard  to  a  fourth  dimension. 


HOW   A    SPACE    MAY    BE    APPARENTLY    EN- 
LARGED  BY   CHANGING   ITS   SHAPE 


HE  following  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  errors 
to  which  careless  observers  may  be  subject : 

Draw  a  square,  like  Fig.  19,  and  divide  the  sides 
into  8  parts  each.  Join  the  points  of  division  in 
opposite  sides  so  as  to  divide  the  whole  square  into  64 
small  squares.  Then  draw  the  lines  shown  in  black  and  cut 
up  the  drawing  into  four  pieces.  The  lines  indicating  the 
cuts  have  been  made  quite  heavy  so  as  to  show  up  clearly, 


Fig.  19. 


Fig.  ao. 


but  on  the  actual  card  they  may  be  made  quite  light.  Now, 
put  the  four  pieces  together,  so  as  to  form  the  rectangle 
shown  in  Fig.  20.  Unless  the  scale,  to  which  the  drawing 
is  made  is  quite  large  and  the  work  very  accurate,  it  will 
seem  that  the  rectangle  contains  5  squares  one  way  and 
13  the  other  which,  when  multiplied  together,  give  65  for 
the  number  of  small  squares,  being  an  apparent  gain  of 
one  square  by  the  simple  process  of  cutting. 

126 


SPACE  APPARENTLY  ENLARGED  127 

This  paradox  is  very  apt  to  puzzle  those  who  are  not 
familiar  with  accurate  drawings.  Of  course,  every  person  of 
common  sense  knows  that  the  card  or  drawing  is  not  made 
any  larger  by  cutting  it,  but  where  does  the  65th  small 
square  come  from  ? 

On  careful  examination  it  will  be  seen  that  the  line  AB, 
Fig.  20,  is  not  quite  straight  and  the  three  parts  into  which 
it  is  divided  are  thus  enabled  to  gain  enough  to  make  one 
of  the  small  squares.  On  a  small  scale  this  deviation  from 
the  straight  line  is  not  very  obvious,  but  make  a  larger  draw- 
ing, and  make  it  carefully,  and  it  will  readily  be  seen  how 
the  trick  is  done. 


CAN  A  MAN   LIFT  HIMSELF  BY  THE  STRAPS 
OF   HIS   BOOTS? 

THINK  it  was  the  elder  Stephenson,  the  famous 
engineer,  who  told  a  man  who  claimed  the 
honor  of  having  invented  a  perpetual  motion, 
that  when  he  could  lift  himself  over  a  fence  by 
taking  hold  of  his  waist-band,  he  might  hope  to  accomplish 
his  object.  And  the  query  which  serves  as  a  title  for  this 
article  has  long  been  propounded  as  one  of  the  physical 
impossibilities.  And  yet,  perhaps,  it  might  be  possible  to 
invent  a  waist-band  or  a  boot-strap  by  which  this  apparently 
impossible  feat  might  be  accomplished  ! 

Travelers  in  Mexico  frequently  bring  home  beans  which 
jump  about  when  laid  on  a  table.  They  are  well-known  as 
"jumping  beans"  and  have  often  been  a  puzzle  to  those 
who  were  not  familiar  with  the  facts  in  the  case.  Each 
bean  contains  the  larva  of  a  species  of  beetle  and  this  af- 
fords a  clue  to  the  secret.  But  the  question  at  once  comes 
up :  "  How  is  the  insect  able  to  move,  not  only  itself,  but  its 
house  as  well,  without  some  purchase  or  direct  contact  with 
the  table?" 

The  explanation  is  simple.  The  hollow  bean  is  elastic 
and  the  insect  has  strength  enough  to  bend  it  slightly ; 
when  the  insect  suddenly  relaxes  its  effort  and  allows  the 
bean  to  spring  back  to  its  former  shape,  the  reaction  on 
the  table  moves  the  bean.  A  man  placed  in  a  perfectly 
rigid  box  could  never  move  himself  by  pressing  on  the 
sides,  but  if  the  box  were  elastic  and  could  be  bent  by  the 
strength  of  the  man  inside,  it  might  be  made  to  move. 

128 


CAN  A  MAN  LIFT  HIMSELF  129 

A  somewhat  analogous  result,  but  depending  on  different 
principles,  is  attained  in  certain  curious  boat  races  which 
are  held  at  some  English  regattas  and  which  is  explained 
by  Prof.  W.  W.  Rouse  Ball,  in  his  "  Mathematical  Recrea- 
tions and  Problems."  He  says  that  it 

"  affords  a  somewhat  curious  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
commonly  a  boat  is  built  so  as  to  make  the  resistance  to 
motion  straight  forward  less  than  that  to  motion  in  the 
opposite  direction. 

"  The  only  thing  supplied  to  the  crew  is  a  coil  of  rope, 
and  they  have  (without  leaving  the  boat)  to  propel  it  from 
one  point  to  another  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The  motion 
is  given  by  tying  one  end  of  the  rope  to  the  afterthwart, 
and  giving  the  other  end  a  series  of  violent  jerks  in  a 
direction  parallel  to  the  keel. 

"  The  effect  of  each  jerk  is  to  compress  the  boat.  Left 
to  itself  the  boat  tends  to  resume  its  original  shape,  but 
the  resistance  to  the  motion  through  the  water  of  the 
stern  is  much  greater  than  that  of  the  bow,  hence,  on  the 
whole,  the  motion  is  forwards.  I  am  told  that  in  still  water 
a  pace  of  two  or  three  miles  an  hour  can  be  thus  attained." 


HOW   A   SPIDER    LIFTED   A   SNAKE 


NE  of  the  most  interesting  books  in  natural  his- 
tory is  a  work  on  "  Insect  Architecture,"  by 
Rennie.  But  if  the  architecture  of  insect 
homes  is  wonderful,  the  engineering  displayed 
by  these  creatures  is  equally  marvellous.  Long  before  man 
had  thought  of  the  saw,  the  saw-fly  had  used  the  same  tool, 
made  after  the  same  fashion,  and  used  in  the  same  way  for 
the  purpose  of  making  slits  in  the  branches  of  trees  so  that 
she  might  have  a  secure  place  in  which  to  deposit  her 
eggs.  The  carpenter  bee,  with  only  the  tools  which  nature 
has  given  her,  cuts  a  round  hole,  the  full  diameter  of  her 
body,  through  thick  boards,  and  so  makes  a  tunnel  by  which 
she  can  have  a  safe  retreat,  in  which  to  rear  her  young. 
The  tumble-bug,  without  derrick  or  machinery,  rolls  over 
large  masses  of  dirt  many  times  her  own  weight,  and  the 
sexton  beetle  will,  in  a  few  hours,  bury  beneath  the  ground 
the  carcass  of  a  comparatively  large  animal.  All  these  feats 
require  a  degree  of  instinct  which  in  a  reasoning  creature 
would  be  called  engineering  skill,  but  none  of  them  are  as 
wonderful  as  the  feats  performed  by  the  spider.  This  ex- 
traordinary little  animal  has  the  faculty  of  propelling  her 
threads  directly  against  the  wind,  and  by  means  of  her 
slender  cords  she  can  haul  up  and  suspend  bodies  which 
are  many  times  her  own  weight. 

Some  years  ago  a  paragraph  went  the  rounds  of  the 
papers  in  which  it  was  said  that  a  spider  had  suspended  an 
unfortunate  mouse,  raising  it  up  from  the  ground,  and 

130 


HOW  A   SPIDER   LIFTED  A  SNAKE  131 

leaving  it  to  perish  miserably  between  heaven  and  earth. 
Would-be  philosophers  made  great  fun  of  this  statement, 
and  ridiculed  it  unmercifully.  I  know  not  how  true  it  was, 
but  I  know  that  it  might  have  been  true. 

Some  years  ago,  in  the  village  of  Havana,  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  a  spider  entangled  a  milk-snake  in  her  threads, 
and  actually  raised  it  some  distance  from  the  ground, 
and  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the  struggles  of  the  reptile,  which 
was  alive. 

By  what  process  of  engineering  did  the  comparatively 
small  and  feeble  insect  succeed  in  overcoming  and  lifting  up 
by  mechanical  means,  the  mouse  or  the  snake  ?  The  solution 
is  easy  enough  if  we  only  give  the  question  a  little  thought. 

The  spider  is  furnished  with  one  of  the  most  efficient 
mechanical  implements  known  to  engineers,  viz.,  a  strong 
elastic  thread.  That  the  thread  is  strong  is  well  known. 
Indeed,  there  are  few  substances  that  will  support  a  greater 
strain  than  the  silk  of  the  silkworm,  or  the  spider ;  careful 
experiment  having  shown  that  for  equal  sizes  the  strength 
of  these  fibers  exceeds  that  of  common  iron.  But  notwith- 
standing its  strength,  the  spider's  thread  alone  would  be 
useless  as  a  mechanical  power  if  it  were  not  for  its  elasticity. 
The  spider  has  no  blocks  or  pulleys,  and,  therefore,  it  cannot 
cause  the  thread  to  divide  up  and  run  in  different  directions, 
but  the  elasticity  of  the  thread  more  than  makes  up  for 
this,  and  renders  possible  the  lifting  of  an  animal  much 
heavier  than  a  mouse  or  a  snake.  This  may  require  a  little 
explanation. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  child  can  lift  a  six-pound  weight 
one  foot  high  and  do  this  twenty  times  a  minute.  Furnish 
him  with  350  rubber  bands,  each  capable  of  pulling  six 
pounds  through  one  foot  when  stretched.  Let  these  bands 


132  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

be  attached  to  a  wooden  platform  on  which  stand  a  pair 
of  horses  weighing  2,100  Ibs.,  or  rather  more  than  a  ton. 
If  now  the  child  will  go  to  work  and  stretch  these  rubber 
bands,  singly,  hooking  each  one  up,  as  it  is  stretched,  in 
less  than  twenty  minutes  he  will  have  raised  the  pair  of 
horses  one  foot ! 

We  thus  see  that  the  elasticity  of  the  rubber  bands 
enables  the  child  to  divide  the  weight  of  the  horses  into 
350  pieces  of  six  pounds  each,  and  at  the  rate  of  a  little  less 
than  one  every  three  seconds,  he  lifts  all  these  separate  pieces 
one  foot,  so  that  the  child  easily  lifts  this  enormous  weight. 

Each  spider's  thread  acts  like  one  of  the  elastic  rubber 
bands.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  mouse  or  the  snake  weighed 
half  an  ounce  and  that  each  thread  is  capable  of  supporting 
a  grain  and  a  half.  The  spider  would  have  to  connect  the 
mouse  with  the  point  from  which  it  was  to  be  suspended 
with  150  threads,  and  if  the  little  quadruped  was  once 
swung  off  his  feet,  he  would  be  powerless.  By  pulling 
successively  on  each  thread  and  shortening  it  a  little,  the 
mouse  or  snake  might  be  raised  to  any  height  within  the 
capacity  of  the  building  or  structure  in  which  the  work  was 
done.  So  that  to  those  who  have  ridiculed  the  story  we 
may  justly  say :  "  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and 
earth  than  are  dreamed  of  in  your  philosophy." 

What  object  the  spider  could  have  had  in  this  work  I 
am  unable  to  see.  It  may  have  been  a  dread  of  the  harm 
which  the  mouse  or  snake  might  work,  or  it  may  have  been 
the  hope  that  the  decaying  carcass  would  attract  flies  which 
would  furnish  food  for  the  engineer.  I  can  vouch  for  the 
truth  of  the  snake  story,  however,  and  the  object  of  this 
article  is  to  explain  and  render  credible  a  very  extraordinary 
feat  of  insect  engineering. 


HOW  THE  SHADOW  MAY  BE  MADE  TO  MOVE 
BACKWARD    ON    THE    SUN-DIAL 

|N  the  twentieth  chapter  of  II  Kings,  at  the 
eleventh  verse  we  read,  that  "  Isaiah  the  prophet 
cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  brought  the  shadow 
ten  degrees  backward,  by  which  it  had  gone 
down  in  the  dial  of  Ahaz." 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  first  pointed  out  by  Nonez,  the 
famous  cosmographer  and  mathematician  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  but  not  generally  known,  that  by  tilting  a  sun-dial 
through  the  proper  angle,  the  shadow  at  certain  periods  of 
the  year  can  be  made,  for  a  short  time,  to  move  backwards 
on  the  dial.  This  was  used  by  the  French  encyclopaedists 
as  a  rationalistic  explanation  of  the  miracle  which  is  related 
at  the  opening  of  this  article. 

The  reader  who  is  curious  in  such  matters  will  find  direc- 
tions for  constructing  "a  dial,  for  any  latitude,  on  which 
the  shadow  shall  retrograde  or  move  backwards,"  in 
Ozanam's  "  Recreations  in  Science  and  Natural  Philosophy," 
Riddle's  edition,  page  5  29.  Professor  Ball  in  his  "  Mathe- 
matical Recreations,"  page  214,  gives  a  very  clear  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomenon.  The  subject  is  somewhat  too 
technical  for  these  pages. 


133 


HOW  A  WATCH  MAY  BE  USED  AS  A  COMPASS 

EVERAL  years  ago  a  correspondent  of  "  Truth  " 
(London)  gave  the  following  simple  directions  for 
finding  the  points  of  the  compass  by  means  of 
the  ordinary  pocket  watch  :  "  Point  the  hour  hand 
to  the  sun,  and  south  is  exactly  half  way  between  the  hour 
hand  and  twelve  on  the  watch,  counting  forward  up  to 
noon,  but  backward  after  the  sun  has  passed  the  meridian." 
Professor  Ball,  in  his  "Mathematical  Recreations  and 
Problems,"  gives  more  complete  directions  and  explanations. 
He  says : 

"  The  position  of  the  sun  relative  to  the  points  of  the 
compass  determines  the  solar  time.  Conversely,  if  we 
take  the  time  given  by  a  watch  as  being  the  solar  time 
(and  it  will  differ  from  it  only  by  a  few  minutes  at  the 
most),  and  we  observe  the  position  of  the  sun,  we  can  find 
the  points  of  the  compass.  To  do  this  it  is  sufficient  to 
point  the  hour-hand  to  the  sun  and  then  the  direction  which 
bisects  the  angle  between  the  hour  and  the  figure  XII  will 
point  due  south.  For  instance,  if  it  is  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  it  is  sufficient  to  point  the  hour-hand  (which 
is  then  at  the  figure  IIII)  to  the  sun,  and  the  figure  II  on 
the  watch  will  indicate  the  direction  of  south.  Again,  if 
it  is  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  must  point  the  hour- 
hand  (which  is  then  at  the  figure  VIII)  to  the  sun,  and  the 
figure  X  on  the  watch  gives  the  south  point  of  the  compass. 

"  Between  the  hours  of  six  in  the  morning  and  six  in 
the  evening  the  angle  between  the  hour  and  XII,  which 
must  be  bisected  is  less  than  180  degrees,  but  at  other  times 
the  angle  to  be  bisected  is  greater  than  180  degrees ;  or  per- 
haps it  is  simpler  to  say  that  at  other  times  the  rule  gives 
the  north  point  and  not  the  south  point. 

"The  reason  is  as  follows:  At  noon  the  sun  is  due 

134 


WATCH   MAY  BE  USED  AS  A  COMPASS        135 

south,  and  it  makes  one  complete  circuit  round  the  points 
of  the  compass  in  24  hours.  The  hour-hand  of  a  watch 
also  makes  one  complete  circuit  in  12  hours.  Hence,  if 
the  watch  is  held  with  its  face  in  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic, 
and  the  figure  XII  on  the  dial  is  pointed  to  the  south,  both 
the  hour-hand  and  the  sun  will  be  in  that  direction  at  noon. 
Both  move  round  in  the  same  direction,  but  the  angular 
velocity  of  the  hour-hand  is  twice  as  great  as  that  of  the 
sun.  Hence  the  rule.  The  greatest  error  due  to  the  neglect 
of  the  equation  of  time  is  less  than  2  degrees.  Of  course, 
in  practice,  most  people  would  hold  the  face  of  the  watch 
horizontal,  and  in  our  latitude  (that  of  London)  no  serious 
error  would  thus  be  introduced. 

"  In  the  southern  hemisphere,  or  in  any  tropical  country 
where  at  noon  the  sun  is  due  north,  the  rule  will  give  the 
north  point  instead  of  the  south." 


MICROGRAPHY    OR    MINUTE    WRITING    AND 
MICROPHOTOGRAPHY 

[NUTE  works  of  art  have  always  excited  the 
curiosity  and  commanded  the  admiration  of  the 
average  man.  Consequently  Cicero  thought  it 
worth  while  to  record  that  the  entire  Illiad  of 
Homer  had  been  written  upon  parchment  in  characters  so 
fine  that  the  copy  could  be  enclosed  in  a  nutshell.  This 
has  always  been  regarded  as  a  marvelous  feat. 

There  is  in  the  French  Cabinet  of  Medals  a  seal,  said  to 
have  belonged  to  Michael  Angelo,  the  fabrication  of  which 
must  date  from  a  very  remote  epoch,  and  upon  which  fifteen 
figures  have  been  engraved  in  a  circular  space  of  fourteen 
millimeters  (.55  inch)  in  diameter.  These  figures  cannot 
be  distinguished  by  the  naked  eye. 

The  Ten  Commandments  have  been  engraved  in  charac- 
ters so  fine  that  they  could  be  stamped  upon  one  side  of  a 
nickle  five-cent  piece,  and  on  several  occasions  the  Lord's 
Prayer  has  been  engraved  on  one  side  of  a  gold  dollar,  the 
diameter  of  which  is  six-tenths  of  an  inch.  I  have  also 
seen  it  written  with  a  pen  within  a  circle  which  measured 
four-tenths  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

In  the  Harleian  manuscript,  530,  there  is  an  account  of  a 
"rare  piece  of  work,  brought  to  pass  by  Peter  Bales,  an 
Englishman,  and  a  clerk  of  the  chancery."  Disraeli  tells 
us  that  it  was  "  The  whole  Bible  in  an  English  walnut,  no 
bigger  than  a  hen's  egg.  The  nut  holdeth  the  book  :  there 
are  as  many  leaves  in  his  little  book  as  in  the  great  Bible, 

136 


MICROGRAPHY  AND  MICROPHOTOGRAPHY  137 

and  he  hath  written  as  much  in  one  of  his  little  leaves  as 
a  great  leaf  of  the  Bible." 

By  most  people,  such  achievements  are  considered  mar- 
vels of  skill,  and  the  newspaper  accounts  of  them  which  are 
published  always  attract  special  attention.  And  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  such  work  requires  good  eyes,  steady 
nerves,  and  very  delicate  control  of  the  muscles.  But  with 
ordinary  writing  materials  there  are  certain  mechanical 
limitations  which  must  prevent  even  the  most  skilful  from 
going  very  far  in  this  direction.  These  limitations  are  im- 
posed by  the  fiber  or  grain  of  the  paper  and  the  construc- 
tion of  the  ordinary  pen,  neither  of  which  can  be  carried 
beyond  a  certain  very  moderate  degree  of  fineness.  Of 
course,  the  paper  that  is  chosen  will  be  selected  on  account 
of  its  hard,  even-grained  surface,  and  the  pen  will  be  chosen 
on  account  of  the  quality  of  its  material  and  its  shape,  and 
the  point  is  always  carefully  dressed  on  a  whetstone  so  as 
to  have  both  halves  of  the  nib  equal  in  strength  and  length, 
and  the  ends  smooth  and  delicate.  When  due  preparation 
has  been  made,  and  when  the  eyes  and  nerves  of  the  writer 
are  in  good  condition,  the  smallness  of  the  distinctly  read- 
able letters  that  may  be  produced  is  wonderful.  And  in 
this  connection  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  many  me- 
chanical operations,  writing  included,  the  hand  is  far  more 
delicate  than  the  eye.  That  which  the  unaided  eye  can 
see  to  write,  the  unaided  eye  can  see  to  read,  but  the  hand, 
without  the  assistance  or  guidance  of  the  eye,  can  produce 
writing  so  minute  that  the  best  eyes  cannot  see  to  read  it, 
and  yet,  when  viewed  under  a  microscope,  it  is  found  to 
compare  favorably  with  the  best  writing  of  ordinary  size. 
And  those  who  are  conversant  with  the  more  delicate 
operations  of  practical  mechanics,  know  that  this  is  no  ex- 


138  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

ceptional  case.  The  only  aid  given  by  the  eye  in  the  case 
of  such  minute  writing  is  the  arrangement  of  the  lines, 
otherwise  the  writing  could  be  done  as  well  with  the  eyes 
shut  as  open. 

Since  the  mechanical  limitations  which  we  have  noted 
prevent  us  from  going  very  far  with  the  instruments  and 
materials  mentioned,  the  next  step  is  to  adopt  a  finer  sur- 
face and  a  sharper  point.  These  conditions  may  be  found 
in  the  fine  glazed  cards  and  the  metal  pencils  or  styles  used 
by  card  writers.  In  these  cards  the  surface  is  nearly  homo- 
geneous, that  is  to  say,  free  from  fibers,  and  the  point  of 
the  metal  pencil  may  be  made  as  sharp  as  a  needle,  but  to 
utilize  these  conditions  to  the  fullest  extent,  it  is  necessary 
to  aid  the  eye,  and  a  magnifier  is,  therefore,  brought  into 
use.  Under  a  powerful  glass  the  hand  may  be  so  guided 
by  the  eye  that  the  writing  produced  cannot  be  read  by  the 
unaided  vision. 

The  specimens  of  fine  writing  thus  far  described  have 
been  produced  directly  by  the  hand  under  the  guidance 
either  of  a  magnifier  or  the  simple  sense  of  motion.  Just 
how  far  it  would  be  possible  to  go  by  these  means  has 
never  been  determined,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  those  who 
have  examined  the  specimens  of  selected  diatoms  and  in- 
sect scales  in  which  objects  that  are  utterly  invisible  to  the 
naked  eye  are  arranged  with  great  accuracy  so  as  to  form 
the  most  beautiful  figures,  can  readily  believe  that  a  com- 
bination of  microscopical  dexterity  and  skill  in  penmanship 
might  easily  go  far  beyond  anything  that  has  yet  been  ac- 
complished in  this  direction,  either  in  ancient  or  modern 
times. 

But  by  means  of  a  very  simple  mechanical  arrangement, 
the  motion  of  the  hand  in  every  direction  may  be  accurately 


MICROGRAPHY  AND  MICROPHOTOGRAPHY  139 

reduced  or  enlarged  to  almost  any  extent,  and  it  thus 
becomes  possible  to  form  letters  which  are  inconceivably 
small.  The  instrument  by  which  this  is  accomplished  is 
known  as  a  pantagraph,  and  it  has,  within  a  few  years, 
become  quite  popular  as  a  means  of  reducing  or  enlarging 
pictures  of  various  kinds,  including  crayon  reproductions 
of  photographs.  Its  construction  and  use  are,  therefore, 
very  generally  understood.  It  was  by  means  of  a  very 
finely-made  instrument  embodying  the  principles  of  the 
pantagraph  that  the  extraordinarily  fine  work  which  we 
are  about  to  describe  was  accomplished. 

It  is  obvious,  however,  that  in  order  to  produce  very  fine 
writing  we  must  use  a  very  fine  pen  or  point  and  the  finer 
the  point  the  sooner  does  it  wear  out,  so  that  in  a  very 
short  time  the  lines  which  go  to  form  the  letters  become 
thick  and  blurred  and  the  work  is  rendered  illegible.  As 
a  consequence  of  this,  when  the  finest  specimens  of  writing 
are  required,  it  is  necessary  to  abandon  the  use  of  ordinary 
points  and  surfaces  and  to  resort  to  the  use  of  the  diamond 
for  a  pen,  and  glass  for  a  surface  upon  which  to  write.  One 
of  the  earliest  attempts  in  this  direction  was  that  of  M. 
Froment,  of  Paris,  who  engraved  on  glass,  within  a  circle, 
the  one-thirtieth  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  the  Coat  of  Arms 
of  England  —  lion,  unicorn,  and  crown  —  with  the  following 
inscription,  partly  in  Roman  letters,  partly  in  script :  "  Honi 
soit  qui  mat  y  pense,  Her  Most  Gracious  Majesty,  Queen 
Victoria,  and  His  Royal  Highness,  Prince  Albert,  Dieu  et 
man  droit.  Written  on  occasion  of  the  Great  Exhibition, 
by  Froment,  a  Paris,  1851." 

The  late  Dr.  Barnard,  President  of  Columbia  College, 
had  in  his  possession  a  copy  of  the  device  borne  by  the  seal 
of  Columbia  College,  New  York,  executed  for  him  by  M. 


140  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

Dumoulin-Froment,  within  a  circle  less  than  three  one- 
hundredths  of  an  inch  in  diameter,''  "  in  which  are  embraced 
four  human  figures  and  various  other  objects,  together  with 
inscriptions  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  all  clearly  legible. 
In  this  device  the  rising  sun  is  represented  in  the  horizon, 
the  diameter  of  the  disk  being  about  three  one-thousandths 
of  an  inch.  This  disk  has  been  cross-hatched  by  the 
draughtsman  in  the  original  design  from  which  the  copy 
was  made ;  and  the  copy  shows  the  marks  of  the  cross- 
hatching  with  perfect  distinctness.  When  this  beautiful 
and  delicate  drawing  is  brought  clearly  out  by  a  suitably 
adjusted  illumination,  the  lines  appear  as  if  traced  by  a 
smooth  point  in  a  surface  of  opaque  ice/' 

Lardner,  in  his  book  on  the  "  Microscope,"  published  in 
1856,  gives  a  wood  cut  which  shows  the  first  piece  of  en- 
graving magnified  1 20  diameters,  but  he  said  that  he  was 
not  at  liberty  to  describe  the  method  by  which  it  was 
done.  As  happens  in  almost  all  such  cases,  however,  the 
very  secrecy  with  which  the  process  was  surrounded  natu- 
rally stimulated  others  to  rival  or  surpass  it,  and  Mr.  N. 
Peters,  a  London  banker,  turned  his  attention  to  the  subject 
and  soon  invented  a  machine  which  produced  results  far 
exceeding  anything  that  M.  Froment  had  accomplished. 
On  April  25,  1855,  Mr.  Farrants  read  before  the  Microsco- 
pical Society^of  London  a  full  account  of  the  Peters  machine, 
with  which  the  inventor  had  written  the  Lord's  Prayer  (in 
the  ordinary  writing  character,  without  abbreviation  or 
contraction  of  any  kind),  in  a  space  not  exceeding  the  one 
hundred  and  fifty-thousandth  of  a  square  inch.  Seven 
years  later,  Mr.  Farrants,  as  President  of  the  Microscopical 
Society,  described  further  improvements  in  the  machine  of 
Mr.  Peters,  and  made  the  following  statement :  "  The 


MICROGRAPHY  AND  MICROPHOTOGRAPHY  141 

Lord's  Prayer  has  been  written  and  may  be  read  in  the 
one-three  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousandth  of  an  English 
square  inch.  The  measurements  of  one  of  these  specimens 
was  verified  by  Dr.  Bowerbank,  with  a  difference  of  not 
more  than  one  five-millionth  of  an  inch,  and  that  difference, 
small  as  it  is,  arose  from  his  not  including  the  prolongation 
of  the  letter/  in  the  sentence  'deliver  us  from  evil ' ;  so 
he  made  the  area  occupied  by  the  writing  less  than  that 
stated  above." 

Some  idea  of  the  minuteness  of  the  characters  in  these 
specimens  may  be  obtained  from  the  statement  that  the 
whole  Bible  and  Testament,  in  writing  of  the  same  size, 
might  be  placed  twenty-two  times  on  the  surface  of  a  square 
inch.  The  grounds  for  this  startlir^  assertion  are  as 
follows :  "  The  Bible  and  Testament  together,  in  the  English 
language,  are  said  to  contain  3,566,480  letters.  The  num- 
ber of  letters  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  as  written,  ending  in 
the  sentence,  'deliver  us  from  evil,'  is  223,  whence,  as 
3,566,480  divided  by  223,  is  equal  to  15,922,  it  appears 
that  the  Bible  and  Testament  together  contain  the  same 
number  of  letters  as  the  Lord's  Prayer  written  16,000 
times  ;  if  then  the  prayer  were  written  in  I -16,000  of  an 
inch,  the  Bible  and  Testament  in  writing  of  the  same  size 
would  be  contained  by  one  square  inch ;  but  as  i-356,oooth 
of  an  inch  is  one  twenty-secondth  part  of  1-15,922  of  an 
inch,  it  follows  that  the  Bible  and  Testament,  in  writing  of 
that  size,  would  occupy  less  space  than  one  twenty-secondth 
of  a  square  inch." 

It  only  now  remains  to  be  seen  that,  minute  as  are  the 
letters  written  by  this  machine,  they  are  characterized  by  a 
clearness  and  precision  of  form  which  proves  that  the  mov- 
ing parts  of  the  machine,  while  possessing  the  utmost 


142  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

delicacy  of  freedom,  are  absolutely  destitute  of  shake,  a 
union  of  requisites  very  difficult  of  fulfilment,  but  quite 
indispensable  to  the  satisfactory  performance  of  the  ap- 
paratus. 

I  have  no  information  in  regard  to  the  present  where- 
abouts of  any  of  the  specimens  turned  out  by  Mr.  Peters, 
and  inquiry  in  London,  among  persons  likely  to  know,  has 
not  supplied  any  information  on  the  subject. 

There  was,  however,  another  micrographer,  Mr.  William 
Webb,  of  London,  who  succeeded  in  producing  some  mar- 
vellous results.  Epigrams  and  also  the  Lord's  Prayer 
written  in  the  one-thousandth  part  of  a  square  inch  have 
been  freely  distributed.  Mr.  Webb  also  produced  a  few 
copies  of  the  second  chapter  of  the  Gospel,  according  to  St. 
John,  written  on  the  scale  of  the  whole  Bible,  to  a  little 
more  than  three-quarters  of  a  square  inch,  and  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  written  on  the  scale  of  the  whole  Bible  eight  times 
on  a  square  inch.  Mr.  Webb  died  about  fifteen  years  ago, 
and  I  believe  he  has  had  no  successor  in  the  art.  Speci- 
mens of  his  work  are  quite  scarce,  most  of  them  having 
found  their  way  into  the  cabinets  of  public  Museums  and 
Societies,  who  are  unwilling  to  part  with  them.  The  late 
Dr.  Woodward,  Director  of  the  Army  Medical  Museum, 
Washington,  D.C.,  procured  two  of  them  on  special  order 
for  the  Museum.  Mr.  Webb  had  brought  out  these  fine 
writings  as  tests  for  certain  qualities  of  the  microscope,  and 
it  was  to  "  serve  as  tests  for  high-power  objectives  "  that 
Dr.  Woodward  procured  the  specimens  now  in  the  micro- 
scopical department  of  the  Museum.  I  am  so  fortunate  as 
to  have  in  my  possession  two  specimen's  of  Mr.  Webb's 
work.  One  is  an  ordinary  microscopical  glass  slide,  three 
inches  by  one,  and  in  the  center  is  a  square  speck  which 


MICROGRAPHY  AND  MICROPHOTOGRAPHY  143 

measures  1-4  5th  of  an  inch  on  the  side.  Upon  this  square 
is  written  the  whole  of  the  second  chapter  of  the  Gospel 
according  to  St.  John  —  the  chapter  which  contains  the 
account  of  the  marriage  in  Cana  of  Galilee. 

In  order  to  estimate  the  space  which  the  whole  Bible 
would  occupy  if  written  on  the  same  scale  as  this  chapter, 
I  have  made  the  following  calculation  which,  I  think,  will  be 
more  easily  followed  and  checked  by  my  readers,  than  that 
of  Mr.  Farrants. 

The  text  of  the  old  version  of  the  Bible,  as  published  in 
minion  by  the  American  Bible  Society,  contains  1272 
pages,  exclusive  of  title  pages  and  blanks.  Each  page 
contains  two  columns  of  58  lines  each,  making  116  lines 
to  the  page.  This  includes  the  headings  of  the  chapters 
and  the  synopses  of  their  contents,  which  are,  therefore, 
thrown  in  to  make  good  measure.  We  have,  therefore, 
1272  pages  of  116  lines  each,  making  a  total  of  147,552 
lines. 

The  second  chapter  of  St.  John  has  25  verses  contain- 
ing 95  lines,  and  is  written  on  the  1-202 5th  of  an  inch,  or, 
in  other  words,  it  would  go  2025  times  on  a  square  inch. 
A  square  inch  would,  therefore,  contain  95  X  2025  or 
192,375  lines.  This  number  (192,375),  divided  by  the 
number  of  lines  in  the  Bible  (147,552),  gives  1.307,  which 
is  the  number  of  times  the  Bible  might  be  written  on  a 
square  inch  in  letters  of  the  same  size.  In  other  words, 
the  whole  Bible  might  be  written  on  .77  inch,  or  very  little 
more  than  three-quarters  of  a  square  inch. 

Perhaps  the  following  gives  a  more  impressive  illustration : 
The  United  States  silver  quarter  of  a  dollar  is  .95  inch  in 
diameter,  so  that  the  surface  of  each  side  is  .707  of  a  square 
inch.  The  whole  Bible  would,  therefore,  very  nearly  go  on 


144  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

one  side  of  a  quarter  of  a  dollar.  If  the  blank  spaces  at 
the  heads  of  the  chapters  and  the  synopses  of  contents 
were  left  out,  it  would  easily  go  on  one  side. 

The  second  specimen,  which  I  have  of  Mr.  Webb's  writ- 
ing, is  a  copy  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  written  on  a  scale  of 
eight  Bibles  to  the  square  inch.  According  to  a  statement 
kindly  sent  me  by  the  superintendent  of  the  United  States 
Mint  at  Philadelphia,  the  diameter  of  the  last  issued  gold 
dollar,  and  also  of  the  silver  half-dime,  is  six-tenths  of  an 
inch.  This  gives  .28274-  of  a  square  inch  as  the  area  of 
the  surface  of  one  side,  and,  therefore,  the  whole  Bible 
might  be  written  more  than  two  and  a  quarter  times  on  one 
side  of  either  the  gold  dollar  or  the  silver  half  dime. 

Such  numerical  and  space  relations  are  far  beyond  the 
power  of  any  ordinary  mind  to  grasp.  With  the  aid  of  a 
microscope  we  can  see  the  object  and  compare  with  other 
magnifications  the  rate  at  which  it  is  enlarged,  and  a  per- 
son of  even  the  most  ordinary  education  can  follow  the 
calculation  and  understand  why  the  statements  are  true, 
but  the  final  result,  like  the  duration  of  eternity  or  the 
immensity  of  space,  conveys  no  definite  idea  to  our  minds. 

But  at  the  same  time  we  must  carefully  distinguish 
between  our  want  of  power  to  grasp  these  ideas  and  our 
inability  to  form  a  conception  of  some  inconceivable  sub- 
ject, such  as  a  fourth  dimension  or  the  mode  of  action  of  a 
new  sense. 

Wonderful  as  these  achievements  are,  there  is  another 
branch  of  the  microscopic  art  which,  from  the  practical 
applications  that  have  been  made  of  it,  is  even  more  inter- 
esting. This  is  the  art  of  microphotography. 

About  the  middle  of  the  last  century  Mr.  J.  B.  Dancer, 
of  Manchester,  England,  produced  certain  minute  photo- 


MICROGRAPHY  AND  MICROPHOTOGRAPHY  145 

graphs  of  well-known  pictures  and  statues  which  com- 
manded the  universal  attention  of  the  microscopists  of  that 
day,  and  for  a  time  formed  the  center  of  attraction  at  all 
microscopical  exhibitions.  They  have  now,  however,  be- 
come so  common  that  they  receive  no  special  notice.  Mr. 
Dancer  and  other  artists  also  produced  copiesof  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Creed,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  etc., 
on  such  a  scale  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  might  be  covered 
with  the  head  of  a  common  pin,  and  yet,  when  viewed 
under  a  very  moderate  magnifying  power,  every  letter  was 
clear  and  distinct.  I  have  now  before  me  a  slip  of  glass, 
three  inches  long  and  one  inch  wide,  in  the  center  of 
which  is  an  oval  photograph  which  occupies  less  than  the 
i-2OOth  of  a  square  inch.  This  photograph  contains  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  with  the  signatures  of  all  the 
signers,  surrounded  by  portraits  of  the  Presidents  and 
the  seals  of  the  original  thirteen  States.  Under  a  moder- 
ate power  every  line  is  clear  and  distinct.  In  the  same 
way  copies  of  such  famous  pictures  as  Landseer's  "  Stag 
at  Bay,"  although  almost  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  come 
out  beautifully  clear  and  distinct  under  the  microscope,  so 
that  it  has  been  suggested  that  one  might  have  an  exten- 
sive picture  gallery  in  a  small  box,  or  pack  away  copies  of 
all  the  books  in  the  Congressional  Library  in  a  small  hand- 
bag. With  such  means  at  our  command,  it  would  be  a 
simple  matter  to  condense  a  bulky  dispatch  into  a  few 
little  films,  which  might  be  carried  in  a  quill  or  concealed 
in  ways  which  would  have  been  impossible  with  the  origi- 
nal. If  Major  Andre"  had  been  able  to  avail  himself  of 
this  mode  of  reducing  the  bulk  of  the  original  papers,  he 
might  have  carried,  without  danger  of  discovery,  those  re- 
ports which  caused  his  capture  and  led  to  his  death.  And 


I46 


THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 


hereafter  the  ordinary  methods  of  searching  suspected 
spies  will  have  to  be  exchanged  for  one  that  is  more 
efficient. 

The  most  interesting  application  of  microphotography, 
of  which  we  have  any  record,  occurred  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  in  1870-71. 

On  September  21,  1870,  the  Germans  so  completely 
surrounded  the  French  capitol,  that  all  communication  by 


Fig.  ai. 

roads,  railways,  and  telegraphs,  was  cut  off  and  the  only 
way  of  escape  from  the  city  was  through  the  air.  On 
April  23,  the  first  balloon  left  Paris,  and  in  a  short  time 
after  that,  a  regular  balloon  post  was  established,  letters 
and  packages  being  sent  out  at  intervals  of  three  to  seven 
days.  In  order  to  get  news  back  to  the  city,  carrier 
pigeons  were  employed,  and  at  first  the  letters  were  simply 
written  on  very  thin  paper  and  enclosed  in  quills  which 
were  fastened  to  the  middle  tail-feather  of  the  bird,  as 
shown  in  the  engraving,  Fig.  21.  It  is,  of  course,  need- 


MICROGRAPHY  AND  MICROPHOTOGRAPHY  147 

less  to  say,  that  the  ordinary  pictures  of  doves  with  letters 
tied  round  their  necks  or  love-notes  attached  to  their 
wings,  are  all  mere  romance.  A  bird  loaded  in  that  way 
would  soon  fall  a  prey  to  its  enemies.  As  it  was,  some  of 
the  pigeons  were  shot  by  German  gunners  or  captured  by 
hawks  trained  by  the  Germans  for  the  purpose,  but  the 
great  majority  got  safely  through. 

Written  communications,  however,  were  of  necessity, 
bulky  and  heavy,  and  therefore  M.  Dagron,  a  Parisian 
photographer,  suggested  that  the  news  be  printed  in  large 
sheets  of  which  microphotographs  could  be  made  and  trans- 
ferred to  collodion  positives  which  might  then  be  stripped 
from  the  glass  and  would  be  very  light.  This  was  done; 
the  collodion  pellicles  measuring  about  ten  centimeters 
(four  inches)  square  and  containing  about  three  thousand 
average  messages.  Eighteen  of  these  pellicles  weighed 
less  than  one  gramme  (fifteen  grains)  and  were  easily 
carried  by  a  single  pigeon.  The  pigeons  having  been  bred 
in  Paris  and  sent  out  by  balloons,  always  returned  to  their 
dove-cotes  in  that  city. 

M.  Dagron  left  Paris  by  balloon  on  November  12,  and 
after  a  most  adventurous  voyage,  being  nearly  captured  by 
a  German  patrol,  he  reached  Tours  and  there  established 
his  headquarters,  and  organized  a  regular  system  of  com- 
munication with  the  capitol.  The  results  were  most  satis- 
factory, upwards  of  two  and  a  half  millions  of  messages 
having  been  sent  into  the  city.  Even  postal  orders,  and 
drafts  were  transmitted  in  this  way  and  duly  honored. 

And  thus  through  the  pigeon-post,  aided  by  micropho- 
tography,  Paris  was  enabled  to  keep  in  touch  with  the 
outer  world,  and  the  anxiety  of  thousands  of  families  was 
relieved. 


148  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

It  is  not  likely,  however,  that  the  pigeon-post  will  ever 
again  come  into  use  for  this  purpose;  our  interest  in  it 
is  now  merely  historical,  for  in  the  next  great  siege,  if  we 
ever  have  one,  the  wireless  telegraph  will  no  doubt  take 
its  place  and  messages,  which  no  hawks  can  capture  and  no 
guns  can  destroy,  will  be  sent  directly  over  the  heads  of 
the  besiegers. 

But  let  us  hope  and  pray,  that  the  savage  and  unneces- 
sary war  which  is  now  being  waged  in  the  east  will  be  the 
last,  and  that  in  the  near  future,  two  or  more  of  the  great 
nations  of  the  globe  will  so  police  the  world,  that  peace  on 
earth  and  good  will  toward  men  will  everywhere  prevail. 


ILLUSIONS   OF  THE   SENSES 

UR  senses  have  been  called  the  "  Five  Gateways 
of  Knowledge  "  because  all  that  we  know  of  the 
world  in  which  we  live  reaches  the  mind,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  through  these  avenues. 
From  the  "  ivory  palace,"  in  which  she  dwells  apart,  and 
which  we  call  the  skull,  the  mind  sends  forth  her  scouts  — 
sight,  hearing,  feeling,  taste,  and  smell  —  bidding  them 
bring  in  reports  of  all  that  is  going  on  around  her,  and  if 
the  information  which  they  furnish  should  be  untrue  or 
distorted,  the  most  dire  results  might  follow.  She,  there- 
fore, frequently  compares  the  tale  that  is  told  by  one  with 
the  reports  from  the  others,  and  in  this  way  it  is  found  that 
under  some  conditions  these  reporters  are  anything  but 
reliable ;  the  stories  which  they  tell  are  often  distorted  and 
untrue,  and  in  some  cases  their  tales  have  no  foundation 
whatever  in  fact,  but  are  the  "unsubstantial  fabric  of  a 
vision." 

It  is,  therefore,  of  the  greatest  importance  to  us,  that  we 
should  find  out  the  points  on  which  these  information 
bearers  are  most  likely  to  be  deceived  so  that  we  may 
guard  against  the  errors  into  which  they  would  otherwise 
certainly  lead  us. 

All  the  senses  are  liable  to  be  imposed  upon  under 
certain  conditions.  The  senses  of  taste  and  of  smell  are 
frequently  the  subject  of  phantom  smells  and  tastes,  which 
are  as  vivid  as  the  sensations  produced  by  physical  causes 
acting  in  the  regular  way.  Even  those  comparatively  new 

149 


ISO  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES    OF   SCIENCE 

senses1  which  have  been  differentiated  from  the  sense  of 
touch  and  which,  with  the  original  five,  make  up  the  mystic 
number  seven,  are  very  untrustworthy  guides  under  certain 
circumstances.  Thus  we  all  know  how  the  sense  of  heat 
may  be  deceived  by  the  old  experiment  of  placing  one  hand 
in  a  bowl  of  cold  water  and  the  other  in  a  bowl  of  hot 
water,  and  then,  after  a  few  minutes,  placing  both  hands 
together  in  a  bowl  of  tepid  water ;  the  hand,  which  has 
been  in  the  cold  water  will  feel  warm,  while  that  which  has 
just  been  taken  from  the  hot  water,  will  feel  quite  cold. 

We  have  all  experienced  the  deceptions  to  which  the 
sense  of  hearing  exposes  us.  Who  has  not  heard  sounds 
which  had  no  existence  except  in  our  own  sensations  ? 
And  every  one  is  familiar  with  the  illusions  to  which  we 
are  liable  when  under  the  influence  of  a  skilful  ventrilo- 
quist. 

Even  the  sense  of  touch,  which  most  of  us  regard  as 
infallible,  is  liable  to  gross  deception.  When  we  have 
"felt"  anything  we  are  always  confident  as  to  its  shape, 
number,  hardness,  etc.,  but  the  following  very  simple  ex- 
periment shows  that  this  confidence  may  be  misplaced : 

Take  a  large  pea  or  a  small  marble  or  bullet  and  place  it 

1  The  old  and  generally  recognized  list  of  the  senses  is  as  follows  :  Sight, 
Hearing,  Smell,  Taste,  and  Touch.  This  is  the  list  enumerated  by  John 
Bunyan  in  his  famous  work,  "  The  Holie  Warre."  It  has,  however,  been 
pointed  out  that  the  sense  which  enables  us  to  recognize  heat  is  not  quite 
the  same  as  that  of  touch  and  modern  physiologists  have  therefore  set 
apart,  as  a  distinct  sense,  the  power  by  which  we  recognize  heat. 

The  same  had  been  previously  done  in  the  case  of  the  sense  of  Muscular 
Resistance  but,  as  the  author  of  "  The  Natural  History  of  Hell "  says, 
14  when  we  differentiate  the  «  Sense  of  Heat,'  and  the  'Sense  of  Resistance* 
from  the  Sense  of  Touch,  we  may  set  up  new  signposts,  but  we  do  not 
open  up  any  new  '  gateways ' ;  things  still  remain  as  they  were  of  old,  and 
every  messenger  from  the  material  world  around  us  must  enter  the  ivory 
palace  of  the  skull  through  one  of  the  old  and  well-known  ways." 


ILLUSIONS   OF   THE   SENSES  151 

on  the  table  or  in  the  palm  of  the  left  hand.  Then  cross 
the  fingers  of  the  right  hand  as  shown  in  the  engraving, 
Fig.  22,  the  second  finger  crossing  the  first,  and  place  them 
on  the  ball,  so  that  the  latter  may  lie  between  the  fingers, 


Fig.  22. 

as  figured  in  the  cut.  If  the  pea  or  ball  be  now  rolled 
about,  the  sensation  is  apparently  that  given  by  two  peas 
under  the  fingers,  and  this  illusion  is  so  strong  that  it  can- 
not be  dispelled  by  calling  in  any  of  the  other  senses  (the 
sense  of  sight  for  example)  as  is  usually  the  case  under 
similar  circumstances.  We  may  try  and  try,  but  it  will 


152  THE  SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

only  be  after  considerable  experience  that  we  shall  learn  to 
disregard  the  apparent  impression  that  there  are  two  balls. 

The  cause  of  this  illusion  is  readily  found.  In  the  ordi- 
nary position  of  the  fingers  the  same  ball  cannot  touch  at 
the  same  time  the  exterior  sides  of  two  adjoining  fingers. 
When  the  two  fingers  are  crossed,  the  conditions  are  ex- 
ceptionally changed,  but  the  instinctive  interpretation 
remains  the  same,  unless  a  frequent  repetition  of  the  exper- 
iment has  overcome  the  effect  of  our  first  education  on  this 
point.  The  experiment,  in  fact  has  to  be  repeated  a  great 
number  of  times  to  make  the  illusion  become  less  and  less 
appreciable. 

But  of  all  the  senses,  that  of  sight  is  the  most  liable  to 
error  and  illusion,  as  the  following  simple  illustrations  will 
show. 

In  Fig.  23  a  black  spot  has  been  placed  on  a  white 


Fif .  *3.  Fig.  14. 

ground,  and  in  Fig.  24  a  white  spot  is  placed  on  a  black 
ground  ;  which  is  the  larger,  the  black  spot  or  the  white 
one  ?  To  every  eye  the  white  spot  will  appear  to  be  the 
largest,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  are  both  the  same  size. 
This  curious  effect  is  attributed  by  Helmholtz  to  what  is 
called  irradiation.  The  eye  may  also  be  greatly  deceived 
even  in  regard  to  the  length  of  lines  placed  side  by  side. 


ILLUSIONS   OF  THE   SENSES 


153 


Thus,  in  Fig.  25  a  thin  vertical  line  stands  upon  a  thick  hor- 
izontal one ;  although  the  two  lines  are  of  precisely  the 
same  length,  the  vertical  one 
seems  to  be  considerably  longer 
than  the  other. 

In  Figs.  26  and  27  a  series 
of  vertical  and  horizontal  lines 
are  shown,  and  in  both  forms  the 
space  that  is  covered  seems  to 
be  longer  one  way  than  the  other. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  space  in 
each  case  is  a  perfect  square, 
and  the  apparent  difference  in 
width  and  height  depends  upon  whether  the  lines  are  ver- 
tical or  horizontal. 

Advantage  is  taken  of  this  curious  illusion  in  dec- 
orating rooms  and  in  selecting  dresses.  Stout  ladies  of 
taste  avoid  dress  goods  having  horizontal  stripes,  and 


Fig.  aS. 


Fig.  26. 


Fig.  27. 


ladies  of  the  opposite  conformation  avoid  those  in  which  the 
stripes  are  vertical. 

But  the  greatest  discrepancy  is  seen  in  Figs.  28  and  29, 
the  middle  line  in  Fig.  29  appearing  to  be  much  longer 
than  in  Fig.  28.  Careful  measurement  will  show  that  they 
are  both  of  precisely  the  same  length,  the  apparent  differ- 


154 


THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 


ence  being  due  to  the  arrangement  of  the  divergent  lines 
at  the  ends. 

Converging  lines  have  a  curious  effect  upon  apparent 
size.     Thus  in  Fig.  30  we  have  a  wall  and  three  posts,  and 


A 


V 


V 


A 


Fig.  28.       Fig.  29. 


if  asked  which  of  the  posts  was  the  highest,  most  persons 
would  name  C,  but  measurement  will  show  that  A  is  the 
highest  and  that  C  is  the  shortest. 

A  still  more  striking  effect  is  produced  in  two  parallel 
lines  by  crossing  them  with  a  series  of  oblique  lines  as  seen 


Fig.  31. 


in  Figs.  31  and  32.     In  Fig.  31  the  horizontal  lines  seem  to 
be  much  closer  at  the  right-hand  ends  than  at  the  left,  but 


ILLUSIONS  OF  THE  SENSES 


'55 


accurate  measurement  will  show  that  they  are  strictly 
parallel. 

By  changing  the  direction  of  the  oblique  lines,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  32,  the  horizontal  lines  appear  to  be  crooked  although 
they  are  perfectly  straight. 


All  these  curious  illusions  are,  however,  far  surpassed  by 
an  experiment  which  we  will  now  proceed  to  describe. 


OBJECTS    APPARENTLY    SEEN    THROUGH    A 
HOLE   IN   THE   HAND 


HE  following  curious  experiment  always  excites 
surprise,  and  as  I  have  met  with  very  few  persons 
who  have  ever  heard  of  it,  I  republish  it  from 
"The  Young  Scientist,"  for  November,  1880. 
It  throws  a  good  deal  of  light  upon  the  facts  connected 
with  vision. 

Procure  a  paste-board  tube  about  seven  or  eight  inches 


long  and  an  inch  or  so  in  diameter,  or  roll  up  a  strip  of  any 
kind  of  stiff  paper  so  as  to  form  a  tube.     Holding  this  tube 

156 


APPARENTLY  SEEN  THROUGH  THE  HAND    157 

in  the  left  hand,  look  through  it  with  the  left  eye,  the  right 
eye  also  being  kept  open.  Then  bring  the  right  hand  into 
the  position  shown  in  the  engraving,  Fig.  33,  the  edge  op- 
posite the  thumb  being  about  in  line  with  the  right-hand 
side  of  the  tube.  Or  the  right  hand  may  rest  against  the 
right-hand  side  of  the  tube,  near  the  end  farthest  from  the 
eye.  This  cuts  off  entirely  the  view  of  the  object  by  the 
right  eye,  yet  strange  to  say  the  object  will  still  remain 
apparently  visible  to  both  eyes  through  a  hole  in  the  hand, 
as  shown  by  the  dotted  lines  in  the  engraving !  In  other 
words,  it  will  appear  to  us  as  if  there  was  actually  a  hole 
through  the  hand,  the  object  being  seen  through  that  hole. 
The  result  is  startlingly  realistic,  and  forms  one  of  the 
simplest  and  most  interesting  experiments  known. 

This  singular  optical  illusion  is  evidently  due  to  the  sym- 
pathy which  exists  between  the  two  eyes,  from  our  habit  of 
blending  the  images  formed  in  both  eyes  so  as  to  give  a 
single  image, 


LOOKING   THROUGH   A   SOLID   BRICK 


VERY  common  exhibition  by  street  showmen, 
and  one  which  never  fails  to  excite  surprise  and 
draw  a  crowd,  is  the  apparatus  by  which  a  person 
is  apparently  enabled  to  look  through  a  brick. 
Mounted  on  a  simple-looking  stand  are  a  couple  of  tubes 
which  look  like  a  telescope  cut  in  two  in  the  middle.  Look- 


Fig.  34- 

ing  through  what  most  people  take  for  a  telescope,  we  are 
not  surprised  when  we  see  clearly  the  people,  buildings, 
trees,  etc.,  beyond  it,  but  this  natural  expectation  is  turned 
into  the  most  startled  surprise  when  it  is  found  that  the 
view  of  these  objects  is  not  cut  off  by  placing  a  common 
brick  between  the  two  parts  of  the  telescope  and  directly 
in  the  apparent  line  of  vision,  as  shown  in  the  accompany- 
ing illustration,  Fig.  34. 

158 


LOOKING  THROUGH  A  SOLID   BRICK  159 

In  truth,  however,  the  observer  looks  round  the  brick 
instead  of  through  it,  and  this  he  is  enabled  to  do  by  means 
of  four  mirrors  ingeniously  arranged  as  shown  in  the  en- 
graving. As  the  mirrors  and  the  lower  connecting  tube 
are  concealed,  and  the  upright  tubes  supporting  the  pre- 
tended telescope,  though  hollow,  appear  to  be  solid,  it  is 
not  very  easy  for  those  who  are  not  in  the  secret  to  dis- 
cover the  trick. 

Of  course  any  number  of  "fake"  explanations  are  given 
by  the  showman  who  always  manages  to  keep  up  with  the 
times  and  exploit  the  latest  mystery.  At  one  time  it  was 
psychic  force,  then  Roentgen  or  X-rays ;  lately  it  has  been 
attributed  to  the  mysterious  effects  of  radium ! 

This  illustration  is  more  properly  a  delusion ;  there  is  no 
illusion  about  it. 


CURIOUS  ARITHMETICAL  PROBLEMS 


THE   CHESS-BOARD   PROBLEM 

N  Arabian  author,  Al  Sephadi,  relates  the  follow- 
ing curious  anecdote : 

A  mathematician  named  Sessa,  the  son  of 
Dahar,  the  subject  of  an  Indian  Prince,  having 
invented  the  game  of  chess,  his  sovereign  was  highly 
pleased  with  the  invention,  and  wishing  to  confer  on  him 
some  reward  worthy  of  his  magnificence,  desired  him  to 
ask  whatever  he  thought  proper,  assuring  him  that  it  should 
be  granted.  The  mathematician,  however,  only  asked  for 
a  grain  of  wheat  for  the  first  square  of  the  chess-board,  two 
for  the  second,  four  for  the  third,  and  so  on  to  the  last,  or 
sixty-fourth.  The  prince  at  first  was  almost  incensed  at 
this  demand,  conceiving  that  it  was  ill-suited  to  his  liberal- 
ity. By  the  advice  of  his  courtiers,  however,  he  ordered 
his  vizier  to  comply  with  Sessa's  request,  but  the  minister 
was  much  astonished  when,  having  caused  the  quantity  of 
wheat  necessary  to  fulfil  the  prince's  order  to  be  calculated, 
he  found  that  all  the  grain  in  the  royal  granaries,  and  even 
all  that  in  those  of  his  subjects  and  in  all  Asia,  would  not 
be  sufficient. 

He  therefore  informed  the  prince,  who  sent  for  the  mathe- 
matician, and  candidly  acknowledged  that  he  was  not  rich 
enough  to  be  able  to  comply  with  his  demand,  the  ingenuity 
of  which  astonished  him  still  more  than  the  game  he  had 
invented. 

It  will  be  found  by  calculation  that  the  sixty-fourth  term 
of  the  double  progression,  beginning  with  unity,  is 

163 


164  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

9,223,372,036,854,775,808, 

and  the  sum  of  all  the  terms  of  this  double  progression, 
beginning  with  unity,  may  be  obtained  by  doubling  the 
last  term  and  subtracting  the  first  from  the  sum.  The 
number,  therefore,  of  the  grains  of  wheat  required  to  sat- 
isfy Sessa's  demand  will  be 

18,446,744,073,709,551,615. 

Now,  if  a  pint  contains  9,216  grains  of  wheat,  a  gallon 
will  contain  73,728,  and  a  bushel  (8  gallons)  will  contain 
589,784.  Dividing  the  number  of  grains  by  this  quantity, 
we  get  31,274,997,412,295  for  the  number  of  bushels  nec- 
essary to  discharge  the  promise  of  the  Indian  prince.  And 
if  we  suppose  that  one  acre  of  land  is  capable  of  producing 
in  one  year,  thirty  bushels  of  wheat,  it  would  require 
1,042,499,913,743  acres,  which  is  more  than  eight  times 
the  entire  surface  of  the  globe;  for  the  diameter  of  the 
earth  being  taken  at  7,930  miles,  its  whole  surface,  in- 
cluding land  and  water,  will  amount  to  very  little  more 
than  126,437,889,177  square  acres. 

If  the  price  of  a  bushel  of  wheat  be  estimated  at  one 
dollar,  the  value  of  the  above  quantity  probably  exceeds 
that  of  all  the  riches  on  the  earth. 

THE   NAIL   PROBLEM 

GENTLEMAN  took  a  fancy  to  a  horse,  and  the 
dealer,  to  induce  him  to  buy,  offered  the  animal 
for  the  value  of  the  twenty-fourth  nail  in  his 
shoe,  reckoning  one  cent  for  the  first  nail,  two 
for  the  second,  four  for  the  third,  and  so  on.  The  gentle- 
man, thinking  the  price  very  low,  accepted  the  offer.  What 
was  the  price  of  the  horse  ? 


A  QUESTION   OF  POPULATION  165 

On  calculating,  it  will  be  found  that  the  twenty-fourth 
term  of  the  progression  i,  2,  4,  8,  16,  etc.,  is  8,388,608,  or 
#83,886.08,  a  sum  which  is  more  than  any  horse,  even  the 
best  Arabian,  was  ever  sold  for. 

Had  the  price  of  the  horse  been  fixed  at  the  value  of  all 
the  nails,  the  sum  would  have  been  double  the  above  price 
less  the  first  term,  or  $167,772.15. 


A   QUESTION   OF   POPULATION 


HE  following  note  on  the  result  of  unrestrained 
propagation  for  one  hundred  generations  is  taken 
from  "Familiar  Lectures  on  Scientific  Subjects," 
by  Sir  John  F.  W.  Herschel : 

For  the  benefit  of  those  who  discuss  the  subjects  of 
population,  war,  pestilence,  famine,  etc.,  it  may  be  as  well 
to  mention  that  the  number  of  human  beings  living  at  the 
end  of  the  hundreth  generation,  commencing  from  a  single 
pair,  doubling  at  each  generation  (say  in  thirty  years),  and 
allowing  for  each  man,  woman,  and  child,  an  average  space 
of  four  feet  in  height  and  one  foot  square,  would  form  a 
vertical  column,  having  for  its  base  the  whole  surface  of 
the  earth  and  sea  spread  out  into  a  plane,  and  for  its  height 
3,674  times  the  sun's  distance  from  the  earth !  The  num- 
ber of  human  strata  thus  piled,  one  on  the  other,  would 
amount  to  460,790,000,000,000. 

In  this  connection  the  following  facts  in  regard  to  the 
present  population  of  the  globe  may  be  of  interest : 

The  present  population  of  the  entire  globe  is  estimated 
by  the  best  statisticians  at  between  fourteen  and  fifteen 


166  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

hundred  millions  of  persons.  This  number  would  easily 
find  standing-room  on  one  half  of  Long  Island,  in  the  State 
of  New  York.  If  this  entire  population  were  to  be  brought 
to  the  United  States,  we  could  easily  give  every  man, 
woman,  and  child,  one  acre  and  a  half  each,  or  a  nice  little 
farm  of  seven  acres  and  a  half  to  every  family,  consisting 
of  a  man,  his  wife,  and  three  children. 

This  question  has  also  an  important  bearing  on  the 
preservation  of  animals  which,  in  limited  numbers,  are  harm- 
less and  even  desirable.  In  Australia,  where  the  restraints 
on  increase  are  slight,  the  rabbit  soon  becomes  not  only  a 
nuisance  but  a  menace,  and  in  this  country  the  migratory 
thrush  or  robin,  as  it  is  generally  called,  has  been  so  pro- 
tected in  some  localities  that  it  threatens  to  destroy  the 
small  fruit  industry. 


HOW  TO  BECOME  A  MILLIONAIRE 


plans  have  been  suggested  for  getting  rich 
quickly,  and  some  of  these  are  so  plausible  and 
alluring  that  multitudes  have  been  induced  to 
invest  in  them  the  savings  which  had  been  accu- 
mulated by  hard  labor  and  severe  economy.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that,  except  in  the  case  of  a  few  stool-pigeons,  who 
were  allowed  to  make  large  profits  so  that  their  success 
might  deceive  others  and  lead  them  into  the  net,  all  these 
projects  have  led  to  disaster  or  ruin.  It  is  a  curious  fact, 
however,  that  some  of  those  who  invested  in  such  "get- 
rich-quickly"  schemes  were  probably  fully  aware  of  their 
fraudulent  character  and  went  into  the  speculation  with  their 
eyes  open  in  the  hope  that  they  might  be  allowed  to  become 


HOW  TO  BECOME  A    MILLIONAIRE  167 

the  stool-pigeons,  and  in  this  way  come  out  of  the  enter- 
prise with  a  large  balance  on  the  right  side.  No  regret 
can  be  felt  when  a  bird  of  this  kind  gets  plucked. 

But  by  the  following  simple  method  every  one  may 
become  his  own  promoter  and  in  a  short  time  accumulate  a 
respectable  fortune.  It  would  seem  that  almost  any  one 
could  save  one  cent  for  the  first  day  of  the  month,  two  cents 
for  the  second,  four  for  the  third,  and  so  on.  Now  if  you 
will  do  this  for  thirty  days  we  will  guarantee  you  the  pos- 
session of  quite  a  nice  little  fortune.  See  how  easy  it  is 
to  become  a  millionaire  on  paper,  and  by  the  way,  it  is  only 
on  paper  that  such  schemes  ever  succeed. 

If,  however,  you  should  have  any  doubt  in  regard  to  your 
ability  to  lay  aside  the  required  amount  each  day,  perhaps 
you  can  induce  some  prosperous  and  avaricious  employer 
to  accept  the  following  tempting  proposition : 

Offer  to  work  for  him  for  a  year,  provided  he  pays  you  one 
cent  for  the  first  week,  two  cents  for  the  second,  four  for 
the  third,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  term.  Surely  your 
services  would  increase  in  value  in  a  corresponding  ratio, 
and  many  business  men  would  gladly  accept  your  terms. 
We  ourselves  have  had  such  a  proposition  accepted  over 
and  over  again ;  the  only  difficulty  was  that  when  we  in- 
sisted upon  security  for  the  last  instalment  of  our  wages, 
our  would-be  employers  could  never  come  to  time.  And  we 
would  strongly  urge  upon  our  readers  that  if  they  ever 
make  such  a  bargain,  they  get  full  security  for  the  last 
payment  for  they  will  find  that  when  it  becomes  due  there 
will  not  be  money  enough  in  the  whole  world  to  satisfy  the 
claim. 

The  entire  amount  of  all  the  money  in  circulation  among 
all  the  nations  of  the  world  (not  the  wealth)  is  estimated  at 


168  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

somewhat  less  than  $15,000,000,000,  and  the  last  payment 
would  amount  to  fifteen  hundred  times  that  immense  sum. 

The  French  have  a  proverb  that  "  it  is  the  first  step 
that  costs"  (Jest  le  premier  pas  qui  coute}  but  in  this  case 
it  is  the  last  step  that  costs  and  it  costs  with  a  vengeance. 

While  on  this  subject  let  me  suggest  to  my  readers  to 
figure  up  the  amount  of  which  they  will  be  possessed  if 
they  will  begin  at  fifteen  years  of  age  and  save  ten  cents 
per  week  for  sixty  years,  depositing  the  money  in  a  savings 
bank  as  often  as  it  reaches  the  amount  required  for  a 
deposit,  and  adding  the  interest  every  six  months.  Most 
persons  will  be  suprised  at  the  result. 


THE  ACTUAL  COST  AND  PRESENT  VALUE  OF 
THE  FIRST   FOLIO    SHAKESPEARE 

EVEN  years  after  the  death  of  Shakespeare,  his 
collected  works  were  published  in  a  large  folio 
volume,  now  known  as  "The  First  Folio 
Shakespeare."  This  was  in  the  year  1623. 
The  price  at  which  the  volume  was  originally  sold  was 
one  pound,  but  perhaps  we  ought  to  take  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  at  that  time  money  had  a  value,  or  purchasing 
power,  at  least  eight  times  that  which  it  has  at  present ; 
Halliwell-Phillips  estimates  it  at  from  twelve  to  twenty 
times  its  present  value.  For  this  circumstance,  however, 
full  allowance  may  be  made  by  multiplying  the  ultimate 
result  by  the  proper  number. 

This  folio  is  regarded  as  the  most  valuable  printed  book 
in  the  English  language  —  the  last  copy  that  was  offered 


THE   FIRST   FOLIO  SHAKESPEARE  169 

for  sale  in  good  condition  having  brought  the  record  price 
of  nearly  $9,000,  so  that  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  a  perfect 
copy,  in  the  condition  in  which  it  left  the  publisher's  hands, 
would  readily  command  $10,000,  and  the  question  now 
arises  :  What  would  be  the  comparative  value  of  the  present 
price,  $10,000,  and  of  the  original  price  (one  pound)  placed 
at  interest  and  compounded  every  year  since  1623  ? 

Over  and  over  again  I  have  heard  it  said  that  the  pur- 
chasers of  the  "  First  Folio  "  had  made  a  splendid  investment 
and  the  same  remark  is  frequently  used  in  reference  to  the 
purchase  of  books  in  general,  irrespective  of  the  present  in- 
tellectual use  that  may  be  made  of  them.  Let  us  make 
the  comparison. 

Money  placed  at  compound  interest  at  six  per  cent,  a 
little  more  than  doubles  itself  in  twelve  years.  At  the 
present  time  and  for  a  few  years  back,  six  per  cent  is  a  high 
rate,  but  it  is  a  very  low  rate  for  the  average.  During  a 
large  part  of  the  time  money  brought  eight,  ten,  and  twelve 
per  cent  per  annum,  and  even  within  the  half  century  just 
past  it  brought  seven  per  cent  during  a  large  portion  of 
the  time.  Now,  between  1623  and  1899,  there  are  23 
periods,  of  12  years  each,  and  at  double  progression  the 
twenty-third  term,  beginning  with  unity,  would  be 
8,38 8,608.  This,  therefore,  would  be  the  amount,  in  pounds, 
which  the  volume  had  cost  up  to  1899.  In  dollars  it  would 
be  $40,794,878.88.  An  article  which  costs  forty  millions 
of  dollars,  and  sells  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  cannot  be 
called  a  very  good  financial  investment. 

From  a  literary  or  intellectual  standpoint,  however,  the 
subject  presents  an  entirely  different  aspect. 

Some  time  ago  I  asked  one  of  the  foremost  Shakesperian 
scholars  in  the  world  if  he  had  a  copy  of  the  "  First  Folio." 


I/O  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF  SCIENCE 

His  reply  was  that  he  could  not  afford  it ;  that  it  would 
not  be  wise  for  him  to  lose  $400  to  $500  per  year  for  the 
mere  sake  of  ownership,  when  for  a  very  slight  expenditure 
for  time  and  railway  fare  he  could  consult  any  one  of  half- 
a-dozen  copies  whenever  he  required  to  do  so. 


ARITHMETICAL   PUZZLES 

GOOD-SIZED  volume  might  be  filled  with  the 
various  arithmetical  puzzles  which  have  been 
propounded.  They  range  from  a  method  of 
discovering  the  number  which  any  one  may 
think  of  to  a  solution  of  the  "famous"  question:  "  How 
old  is  Ann  ? "  Of  the  following  cases  one  may  be  con- 
sidered a  "  catch  "  question,  while  the  other  is  an  interest- 
ing problem. 

A  country  woman,  carrying  eggs  to  a  garrison  where 
she  had  three  guards  to  pass,  sold  at  the  first,  half  the 
number  she  had  and  half  an  egg  more ;  at  the  second,  the 
half  of  what  remained  and  half  an  egg  more  ;  at  the  third 
the  half  of  the  remainder  and  half  an  egg  more ;  when  she 
arrived  at  the  market-place  she  had  three  dozen  still  to 
sell.  How  was  this  possible  without  breaking  any  of  the 
eggs  ? 

At  first  view,  this  problem  seems  impossible,  for  how 
can  half  an  egg  be  sold  without  breaking  any  ?  But  by 
taking  the  greater  half  of  an  odd  number  we  take  the 
exact  half  and  half  an  egg  more.  If  she  had  295  eggs 
before  she  came  to  the  first  guard,  she  would  there  sell 
148,  leaving  her  147.  At  the  next  she  sold  74,  leaving 
her  73.  At  the  next  she  sold  37,  leaving  her  three  dozen. 


ARCHIMEDES  AND   HIS   FULCRUM  I/I 

The  second  problem  is  as  follows  :  After  the  Romans 
had  captured  Jotopat,  Josephus  and  forty  other  Jews 
sought  shelter  in  a  cave,  but  the  refugees  were  so  fright- 
ened that,  with  the  exception  of  Josephus  himself  and  one 
other,  they  resolved  to  kill  themselves  rather  than  fall  into 
the  hands  of  their  enemies.  Failing  to  dissuade  them  from 
this  horrid  purpose,  Josephus  used  his  authority  as  their 
chief  to  insist  that  they  put  each  other  to  death  in  an 
orderly  manner.  They  were  therefore  arranged  round  a 
circle,  and  every  third  man  was  killed  until  but  two  men 
remained,  the  understanding  being  that  they  were  to 
commit  suicide.  By  placing  himself  and  the  other  man 
in  the  3 1  st  and  1 6th  places,  they  were  the  last  that  were 
left,  and  in  this  way  they  escaped  death. 


ARCHIMEDES  AND  HIS  FULCRUM 

EXT  to  that  of  Euclid,  the  name  of  Archimedes 
is  probably  that  which  is  the  best  known  of  all 
the  mathematicians  and  mechanics  of  antiquity, 
and  this  is  in  great  part  due  to  the  two  famous 
sayings  which  have  been  attributed  to  him,  one  being 
" Eureka "  —  "I  have  found  it,"  uttered  when  he  dis- 
covered the  method  now  universally  in  use  for  rinding  the 
specific  gravity  of  bodies,  and  the  other  being  the  equally 
famous  dictum  which  he  is  said  to  have  addressed  to  Hiero, 
King  of  Sicily, — «'  Give  me  a  fulcrum  and  I  will  raise  the 
earth  from  its  place." 

That  Archimedes,  provided  he  had  been  immortal,  could 
have  carried  out  his  promise,  is  mathematically  certain,  but 
it  occurred  to  Ozanam  to  calculate  the  length  of  time  which 


172  THE   SEVEN   FOLLIES   OF   SCIENCE 

it  would  take  him  to  move  the  earth  only  one  inch,  suppos- 
ing his  machine  constructed  and  mathematically  perfect ; 
that  is  to  say,  without  friction,  without  gravity,  and  in  com- 
plete equilibrium,  and  the  following  is  the  result : 

For  this  purpose  we  shall  suppose  that  the  matter  of 
which  the  earth  is  composed  weighs  300  pounds  per  cubic 
foot,  this  being  about  the  ascertained  average.  If  the  di- 
ameter of  the  earth  be  7,930  miles,  the  whole  globe  will  be 
found  to  contain  261,107,411,765  cubic  miles,  which  make 
1,423,499,120,882,544,640,000  cubic  yards,  or  38,434,476,- 
263,828,705,280,000  cubic  feet,  and  allowing  300  pounds 
to  each  cubic  foot,  we  shall  have  11,530,342,879,148,611,- 
584,000,000  for  the  weight  of  the  earth  in  pounds. 

Now,  we  know,  by  the  laws  of  mechanics,  that,  whatever 
be  the  construction  of  a  machine,  the  space  passed  over  by 
the  weight,  is  to  that  passed  over  by  the  moving  power,  in  the 
reciprocal  ratio  of  the  latter  to  the  former.  It  is  known 
also,  that  a  man  can  act  with  an  effort  equal  only  to  about 
30  pounds  for  eight  or  ten  hours,  without  intermission, 
and  with  a  velocity  of  about  10,000  feet  per  hour.  If 
then  we  suppose  the  machine  of  Archimedes  to  be  put  in 
motion  by  means  of  a  crank,  and  that  the  force  continually 
applied  to  it  is  equal  to  30  pounds,  then  with  the  velocity 
of  10,000  feet  per  hour,  to  raise  the  earth  one  inch  the 
moving  power  must  pass  over  the  space  of  384,344,762,- 
638,287,052,800,000  inches;  and  if  this  space  be  divided 
by  10,000  feet  or  120,000  inches,  we  shall  have  for  a  quo- 
tient 3,202,873,021,985,725,440,  which  will  be  the  number 
of  hours  required  for  this  motion.  But  as  a  year  contains 
8,766  hours,  a  century  will  contain  876,600  ;  and  if  we 
divide  the  above  number  of  hours  by  the  latter,  the  quo- 
tient, 3,653,745,176,803,  will  be  the  number  of  centuries 


AN  INTERESTING  EGG  PROBLEM  173 

during  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  make  the  crank  of 
the  machine  continually  turn  in  order  to  move  the  earth 
only  one  inch.  We  have  omitted  the  fraction  of  a  cen- 
tury as  being  of  little  consequence  in  a  calculation  of  this 
kind.  The  machine  is  also  supposed  to  be  constantly  in 
action,  but  if  it  should  be  worked  only  eight  hours  each 
day,  the  time  required  would  be  three  times  as  long. 

So  that  while  it  is  true  that  Archimedes  could  move  the 
world,  the  space  through  which  he  could  have  moved  it, 
during  his  whole  life,  from  infancy  to  old  age,  is  so  small 
that  even  if  multiplied  two  hundred  million  times  it  could 
not  be  measured  by  even  the  most  delicate  of  our  modern 
measuring  instruments. 


AN   INTERESTING  EGG  PROBLEM 

PARTY  of  young  people  going  on  an  excursion 
proposed  to  take  with  them  some  cold,  hard- 
boiled  eggs  for  lunch.  Just  as  they  were  about 
to  set  out,  an  addition  was  made  to  their  number 
and  more  eggs  were  needed.  A  young  boy  was  sent  to 
the  cellar  to  bring  some,  which  he  did,  but  unfortunately 
he  carelessly  placed  the  raw  eggs  amongst  the  boiled  ones, 
and  as  they  were  all  cold  and  about  the  same  temperature 
an  interesting  problem  arose:  How  could  they  distinguish 
and  separate  them? 

One  of  the  party  solved  the  puzzle  very  easily  and 
quickly.  He  placed  one  of  the  eggs  on  a  table  and  taking  it 
between  his  thumb  and  ringers  he  tried  to  twirl  it  as  one 
would  twirl  a  teetotum.  It  would  not  spin  and  he  pro- 
nounced it  raw.  Taking  another  and  treating  it  in  the  same 


174  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

way  he  found  that  it  would  spin  like  a  top  and  he  said  it 
was  boiled.  Testing  all  the  eggs  in  this  way  he  soon  picked 
out  the  raw  ones,  and  when  they  came  to  use  them  his 
companions  found  that  he  had  not  made  a  single  mistake. 

This  is  a  very  pretty  experiment  and  one  that  does  not 
seem  to  be  generally  known.  It  is  easily  tried  at  the 
breakfast  table  whenever  boiled  eggs  form  part  of  the  bill 
of  fare. 

And  a  good  deal  of  fun  may  be  had  by  providing  two  or 
three  eggs,  some  boiled  hard  and  some  raw  and  all  cold 
and  asking  some  one  to  pick  out  the  boiled  from  the  raw. 
Very  probably  the  candle  test  will  be  the  one  that  first 
suggests  itself,  and  it  is  amusing  to  watch  how  many  fail- 
ures result.  When  the  simple  method  here  described  is 
shown  it  always  causes  a  good  deal  of  surprise  to  those 
who  have  not  seen  it  before. 

The  reason  why  the  raw  egg  will  not  spin  is  obvious: 
The  time  during  which  the  fingers  act  on  the  egg  is  not 
long  enough  to  impart  motion  to  the  contents  if  they  are 
liquid;  when  the  contents  are  solid,  the  movement  of  the 
fingers  is  imparted  to  the  whole  egg  from  the  very  start, 
and  when  let  go,  the  entire  mass  continues  to  rotate  like 
a  top. 


SOME   NOTES 

ON 

POPULAR  FALLACIES  AND 
COMMON   ERRORS 


NOTES  ON  A  FEW  POPULAR  FALLACIES  AND 
COMMON  ERRORS 


a  fallacy  or  an  error  becomes  embodied  in  a 
proverb  or  woven  into  the  texture  of  a  language, 
its  vitality  and  power  of  diffusion  seem  almost 
inexhaustible.  It  will  require  a  long  course  of 
education  to  destroy  the  force  of  the  proverb,  "  Lightning 
never  strikes  twice  in  the  same  place,"  or  to  eradicate 
from  the  popular  mind  the  idea  that  black  lead  is  related 
to  the  metal  lead.  Nevertheless  the  time  will  surely  come 
when  such  crude  notions  will  be  abandoned  by  even  the 
least  educated.  Of  course  there  will  always  be  errors  and 
mistakes  which  will  have  a  vogue  amongst  the  unthinking, 
but  such  gross  fables  as  were  accepted  by  our  forefathers 
are  now  entirely  abandoned  and  no  one  can  be  found  who 
now  believes  in  the  vampire,  the  phoenix,  the  salamander, 
the  centaur,  or  any  of  the  other  fabulous  products  of  the 
human  imagination.  But  even  down  to  the  time  of 
Shakespeare  it  was  generally  held  that  such  creatures  did 
exist  or  might  have  existed,  the  most  elementary  principles 
of  biology  not  being  generally  known  and  even  not  yet 
discovered.  Shakespeare's  works  are  full  of  erroneous 
statements  in  regard  to  matters  of  natural  history,  and  it 
is  not  long  since  a  writer  for  the  press  published  an  elabo- 
rate article  accusing  him  of  ignorance  or  faking,  the  truth 
of  the  matter  being  that  Shakespeare  took  his  natural 
history  from  those  works  which  in  his  time  were  considered 
standard  authorities,  just  as  the  writer  of  the  article  in  ques- 

177 


178  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

tion  takes  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  his  information  from  the 
generally  accepted  books  of  the  day.  When  Shakespeare 
speaks  of  things  which  come  within  the  sphere  of  his  own 
observation  he  is  almost  always  correct,  but  when  he 
accepts  the  ideas  and  beliefs  which  prevailed  amongst  the 
authors  of  his  time  he  is  frequently  wrong.  Like  all  the 
men  of  his  time  he  believed  in  a  king  bee,  and  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  government  of  the  hive  ("King  Henry  V,"  Act  I, 
Scene  2,  line  188),  as  he  understood  it,  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  most  frequently  quoted  passages  in  his 
works,  though  as  a  statement  of  the  true  natural  history 
of  the  bee  and  the  economy  of  the  hive  it  is  pure  fiction. 
So  too  the  reference  to  "the  kind  life-rendering  pelican," 
in  "  Hamlet" 1  (Act  IV,  Scene  5,  line  145),  as  well  as  in  other 
plays,  was  in  strict  accord  with  the  notions  that  were  then 
accepted  and  that  were  portrayed  in  numerous  pictures 
and  engravings  as  well  as  in  the  crest  and  scutcheon  of 
many  noble  families.  This  matter  has  been  well  discussed 
by  Professor  Dowden  of  the  University  of  Dublin  in  the 
Introduction  to  "The  Shakespeare  Cyclopedia." 

Even  Izaac  Walton,  who  from  his  many  opportunities 
for  observation  in  country  fields  and  by  riversides  might 
have  been  expected  to  be  accurate  in  his  knowledge  of 
facts,  accepts  many  of  the  crude  notions  and  erroneous 
statements  made  by  the  writers  who  preceded  him. 

1  Some  of  our  readers  will  no  doubt  be  surprised  when  told  that  in  the 
first  collected  edition  of  Shakespeare's  works,  generally  known  as  the 
"First  Folio,"  the  words  are  "Kinde  Life-rendering  Politicean,"  —  a  curious 
typographical  mistake  which  has  given  rise  to  some  interesting  lucubrations. 
If  this  were  the  true  reading  the  politicians  of  Hamlet's  time  must  have 
been  very  different  from  those  of  our  day.  But  the  word  is  pelican  in  the 
quartos,  and  the  same  alleged  characteristic  of  the  pelican  is  referred  to  in 
Richard  II  and  King  Lear  so  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  modem 
text  is  correct. 


POPULAR  FALLACIES  AND  COMMON  ERRORS        179 

It  is  now  rather  more  than  two  centuries  and  a  half 
since  Sir  Thomas  Browne  published  his  "Pseudodoxia 
Epidemica,"  or  "Vulgar  Errors,"  a  curious  and  interest- 
ing work  which  throws  much  light  on  some  of  the  extraor- 
dinary beliefs  of  his  day.  The  last  edition  that  was  issued 
during  his  life  now  lies  before  me,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  the  absurdities  which  seem  to  have  been  generally 
accepted  by  even  the  best  educated  people  of  his  time. 
But  most  of  them  have  been  discarded  owing  to  the  in- 
crease and  diffusion  of  knowledge  in  natural  history  and 
the  physical  sciences.  A  few,  however,  still  remain,  and 
some  brief  notes  on  those  which  are  most  prominent  can 
hardly  fail  to  interest  the  readers  of  this  book. 


THAT  MOST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  HAVE  BEEN 
MADE  BY  ACCIDENT 

OTHING  appeals  more  strongly  to  the  mind 
of  the  average  man  than  accounts  of  great 
results  which  have  been  achieved  by  means 
which  were  apparently  totally  inadequate  to 
effect  the  purpose  intended.  When  he  is  told  that  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  made  some  of  his  great  discoveries  by  means 
of  a  child's  toy  —  the  soap  bubble  —  he  is  not  only  inter- 
ested but  amazed,  forgetting  the  long  course  of  deep 
mathematical  study  which  enabled  Newton  to  derive  such 
important  conclusions  from  such  apparently  trivial  phenom- 
ena. And  there  is  a  good  story  told  of  two  old  ladies  who 
lived  opposite  the  great  mathematician  and  who  after 
watching  him  for  some  time  came  to  the  conclusion  that 


180  THE   SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

he  was  weak-minded.  One  day  they  mentioned  the  matter 
to  their  physician,  a  well-informed  man,  and  expressed 
their  pity  and  sympathy  for  the  poor  old  gentleman.  They 
were  much  astonished  when  they  were  told  that  the  sup- 
posed imbecile  was  none  other  than  the  great  philosopher 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  who  was  then  deeply  engaged  in  the 
study  of  certain  abstract  problems  in  regard  to  light  and 
was  using  the  soap  bubbles  to  verify  practically  his  purely 
mathematical  deductions.  This  particular  story  may  not 
be  true  (very  few  such  stories  are),  but  it  has  an  air  of 
probability  about  it  and  there  have  been  hundreds  of  actual 
cases  just  like  it. 

Very  few  great  discoveries  or  inventions  were  ever  made 
by  mere  accident  and  when  such  has  apparently  been  the 
case,  the  mind  that  was  able  to  seize  the  new  idea  and  adapt 
it  to  the  required  conditions  must  have  been  prepared  to 
recognize  its  significance  and  the  relation  which  it  bore 
to  these  conditions.  The  discovery  of  phosphorus  seems 
to  have  been  made  by  accident;  the  discoverer,  Brandt, 
was  looking  for  something  entirely  different.  He  thought 
that  in  certain  liquids  derived  from  the  human  organism 
he  ought  to  find  the  philosopher's  stone ;  he  did  not  find  the 
stone,  but  he  did  find  phosphorus.  But  it  is  very  certain 
that  he  would  not  have  obtained  the  phosphorus  if  he  had 
not  been  prepared  to  do  so  by  long  experience  in  earnest 
chemical  work. 

A  few  years  ago  an  article  on  this  subject  went  the  rounds 
of  the  press  and  in  it  we  were  told  that  among  other  acci- 
dental discoveries  "the  attraction  of  gravitation  was  sug- 
gested to  Sir  Isaac  Newton  by  the  fall  of  an  apple;  that 
Galileo  got  his  first  hint  of  the  pendulum  from  the  swinging 
of  a  chandelier  in  a  cathedral;  that  Madame  Galvani,  being 


MOST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  MADE  BY  ACCIDENT      l8l 

an  invalid,  had  frog  soup  prescribed  for  her,  and  while  the 
frogs  were  being  prepared  she  noticed  certain  twitchings 
in  the  dead  animals  and  called  the  attention  of  her  husband 
to  the  matter,  and  that  owing  to  this  accident  Galvani  was 
led  to  make  his  great  discoveries.  Also  that  the  power  of 
steam  was  first  discovered  by  the  oscillations  of  the  lid  of 
a  teakettle;  and  to  these  instances  were  added  numerous 
other  historic  fables  which  have  long  been  exploded. 

In  the  case  of  Newton,  he  did  not  discover  "  the  attraction 
of  gravitation";  what  he  did  discover  was  that  the  same 
force  which  caused  stones,  etc.,  to  fall  to  the  earth  when 
left  unsupported,  also  retained  the  moon  in  her  orbit;  and 
this  he  proved  by  comparing  the  rate  of  falling  bodies  on 
the  earth,  as  determined  by  Galileo,  with  the  rate  at  which 
the  moon  deviated  from  the  straight  line  which  she  would 
have  pursued  if  no  extraneous  force  had  acted  on  her.  The 
story  of  the  falling  apple  had  no  foundation  in  fact;  this  was 
amply  proved  by  Sir  David  Brewster  in  his  life  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton. 

Galileo  had  long  been  engaged  in  investigations  relating 
to  falling  bodies  and  had  fully  proved  the  absolute  regularity 
of  their  motion  when  he  suggested  the  use  of  the  pendulum 
as  a  time  measurer.  Very  probably  he  may  have  watched 
the  swinging  chandelier  and  used  it  as  an  illustration,  but 
it  was  his  previous  studies  and  earnest  thought  and  not  the 
mere  swinging  of  the  chandelier  that  pointed  to  the  utility 
of  the  pendulum. 

The  story  about  Madame  Galvani  and  her  frog  soup, 
as  given  in  popular  books  on  electricity  and  in  many  old 
textbooks,  is  a  fabrication  of  Alibert,  an  Italian  writer  of 
no  repute.  It  is  completely  disproved  by  the  fact  that  at 
the  time  his  wife's  health  failed  Galvani  had  been  engaged 


182  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

for  eleven  years  in  a  series  of  experiments  in  which  he  had 
used  frogs'  legs  as  electroscopes. 

The  power  of  steam  was  known  long  before  teakettles 
had  come  into  use;  and  as  the  case  of  Watt  and  his  inven- 
tions affords  a  very  good  example  of  the  erroneous  ideas  so 
generally  entertained  on  such  subjects,  it  may  be  well  to 
consider  it  at  length. 


THAT  THE  IDEA  OF  THE  STEAM  ENGINE  WAS 
SUGGESTED  TO  JAMES  WATT  BY  THE  AC- 
TION OF  THE  STEAM  ON  THE  LID  OF  HIS 
MOTHER'S  TEAKETTLE 

HERE  is  a  large  and  elaborate  engraving  of 
James  Watt  as  a  boy  standing  before  a  fire  on 
which  a  teakettle  is  boiling  while  he  watches 
the  lid  jump  up  and  down.  On  one  side  is  an 
elderly  woman  (mother  or  grandmother)  earnestly  watching 
the  boy.  Young  Watt  is  dressed  in  the  height  of  the  fashion 
of  the  period — knee  breeches,  powdered  wig,  and  other 
habiliments  such  as  no  Scottish  lad  of  his  station  in  life 
ever  wore.  This  engraving  has  had  a  large  circulation 
and  has  no  doubt  impressed  the  minds  of  many  with  the 
truth  of  the  story  that  Watt's  great  invention  was  due  to 
the  accident  of  his  watching  the  motion  of  the  kettle  lid 
as  the  steam  rose  from  the  boiling  water. 

The  incident  which  the  engraving  is  supposed  to  repre- 
sent is  pure  fiction.  The  power  of  steam  was  well  known 
long  before  the  days  of  Watt.  Hero  of  Alexandria,  130 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  had  applied  steam  to  the  pro- 


STEAM   ENGINE   SUGGESTED   BY  THE  TEAKETTLE      183 

duction  of  motion,  and  the  number  of  the  inventors  who  had 
devoted  themselves  to  the  improvement  of  the  steam  engine 
was  very  large  —  Battista  della  Porta,  Branca,  Solomon 
de  Caus,  the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  Savery,  and  many 
others  had  all  invented  engines  of  various  types.  Indeed 
the  engines  of  Newcomen  were  then  in  practical  operation 
in  the  mines  and  had  in  many  cases  displaced  horses.  So 
that  Watt  was  not  the  inventor  of  the  first  steam  engine 
that  did  practical  work,  and  that  such  engines  were  in  use 
was  known  to  every  intelligent  mechanic. 

But  that  Watt  was  the  inventor  of  the  first  engine  that 
was  commercially  successful  as  a  motive  power  for  ma- 
chinery is  true  beyond  all  question,  and  this  success  was  not 
due  to  any  happy  accident,  but  was  the  result  of  long-contin- 
ued and  earnest  study  and  investigation.  This  is  not  the 
place  for  even  a  brief  history  of  Watt  and  his  inventions, 
but  as  the  prominent  incidents  which  led  to  his  final  success 
afford  a  most  valuable  illustration  of  the  great  truth  that 
almost  all  inventions  and  discoveries  are  the  result  of  hard 
and  earnest  work  and  not  of  mere  accident,  we  may  be 
pardoned  for  glancing  at  them. 

Owing  to  the  failure  of  his  father  in  business,  Watt  was 
early  thrown  upon  his  own  resources.  He  went  to  London 
and  engaged  as  apprentice  with  a  philosophical  instrument 
maker,  but  as  his  health  failed  he  was  obliged  to  return 
home  at  the  end  of  a  year.  During  this  year,  however, 
he  seems  to  have  acquired  unusual  skill  in  the  use  of  tools 
and  a  very  thorough  insight  into  the  construction  of  appa- 
ratus, and  through  the  influence  of  some  of  the  professors 
in  the  University  of  Glasgow,  with  whom  he  had  formed  a 
friendship,  he  was  employed  to  repair  and  adjust  the  appa- 
ratus used  by  them  in  their  lectures.  He  even  attempted 


184  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

to  open  a  shop  in  the  city  of  Glasgow,  but  the  guilds  refused 
their  permission.  Fortunately  for  Watt  and  for  humanity 
the  University  authorities  had  complete  control  within 
their  own  grounds,  so  they  assigned  him  a  workroom  and 
enabled  him  to  set  the  guilds  at  defiance. 

Amongst  the  apparatus  which  was  sent  to  him  to  repair 
was  a  model  of  Newcomen's  engine.  Watt  succeeded  in 
putting  it  in  working  order,  but  was  disgusted  with  the 
small  result  which  it  gave  for  the  combustion  of  a  large 
amount  of  fuel.  Just  about  this  time  his  friend  Dr.  Joseph 
Black,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  of  Glasgow 
and  the  discoverer  of  carbonic  acid,  had  made  his  cele- 
brated investigations  into  latent  heat,  and  this  gave  Watt 
accurate  ideas  in  regard  to  the  practical  relations  of  steam. 
After  much  study  and  many  experiments  he  worked  out 
the  condensing  engine,  which  did  an  equal  amount  of 
work  with  less  than  one-fourth  the  fuel  required  by  New- 
comen's engine.  This  enabled  the  Cornish  mine  owners  to 
carry  on  work  in  mines  which  otherwise  must  have  been 
abandoned  as  unprofitable.  Other  improvements  followed, 
and  while  the  old  engines  were  never  used  for  any  other 
purpose  than  pumping,  the  new  engines  of  Watt  were 
capable  of  being  profitably  employed  for  driving  machinery 
and  other  kinds  of  work. 

But  at  no  stage  of  this  progress  could  any  advancement 
be  said  to  have  been  due  to  mere  accident;  it  was  all  the 
result  of  deep  study  and  hard  work. 


THAT  WHETSTONES  ARE  OILED  TO  LESSEN 
THE  FRICTION  OF  THE  METAL  UPON  THE 
STONE 


HIS  fallacy  has  become  popular  owing  to  a  state- 
ment made  by  Professor  Tyndall  in  his  cele- 
brated work,  "Heat  a  Mode  of  Motion."  In 
paragraph  9  occurs  the  following  passage:  "When- 
ever friction  is  overcome,  heat  is  produced,  and  the  heat 
produced  is  the  exact  measure  of  the  force  expended  in 
overcoming  the  friction.  The  heat  is  simply  the  primitive 
force  in  another  form,  and  if  we  wish  to  avoid  this  con- 
version, we  must  abolish  the  friction.  We  put  oil  upon 
the  surface  of  a  hone,  we  grease  a  saw,  and  are  careful  to 
lubricate  the  axles  of  our  railway  carriages." 

Now  since  the  application  of  grease  to  rubbing  surfaces 
for  the  purpose  of  lessening  friction  has  been  practiced 
from  time  immemorial,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
Tyndall  in  his  dragnet  for  instances  should  have  caught 
the  hone  or  whetstone  amongst  other  things,  because  the 
application  of  oil  to  hones  and  whetstones  is  almost  uni- 
versal. And  as  his  book  is  a  standard  authority  in  its 
department,  this  mistake  has  been  quoted  over  and  over 
again,  the  latest  instance  that  has  come  to  my  notice 
being  found  in  a  most  interesting  and  instructive  book  by 
the  late  Professor  Tidy,  "The  Story  of  a  Tinder-Box." 

Those  who  are  practically  familiar  with  the  use  of  hones 
and  whetstones  know  that  the  chief  use  of  the  oil  is  not  to 

185 


l86  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES    OF   SCIENCE 

lessen  the  friction  but  to  prevent  the  metal  from  forming  a 
glaze  on  the  surface  of  the  stone.  When  a  steel  blade  is 
rubbed  on  a  dry  whetstone  the  minute  particles  that  are 
torn  from  the  metal  attach  themselves  to  the  surface  of 
the  stone  and  are  then  burnished  to  a  smoothness  which 
greatly  lessens  the  friction  and  prevents  further  abrasion. 
So  that  in  reality  the  application  of  the  oil  to  the  whet- 
stone actually  increases  the  friction  instead  of  lessening  it. 

Of  course  this  does  not  apply  to  coarse-grained  grind- 
stones where  the  particles  of  metal  that  are  removed  from 
the  tool  are  of  considerable  size  and  are  torn  off  with 
great  rapidity.  In  that  case  the  combined  friction  and 
abrasion  quickly  heat  the  article  to  a  degree  which  de- 
stroys its  temper  if  it  is  made  of  steel,  and  to  counteract 
this  a  stream  of  water  is  applied,  but  not  for  the  purpose 
of  lessening  the  friction. 

It  is  a  popular  impression  that  friction  is  only  a  source 
of  evil-.  It  is  regarded  as  the  great  agent  in  wasting  power 
and  destroying  machinery  which,  if  there  were  no  friction, 
would  last  forever.  But  friction  has  its  advantages  as 
well  as  its  disadvantages,  and  the  former  are  quite  as  im- 
portant as  the  latter.  If  it  were  not  for  friction  no  nail  or 
screw  would  hold,  and  our  buildings  and  machines,  unless 
constructed  after  methods  very  different  from  those  at 
present  in  use,  would  all  fall  to  pieces.  No  knot  could  be 
made  to  hold;  the  first  strain  would  cause  it  to  slip.  With- 
out friction  no  locomotive  could  drag  its  train  along,  and 
even  the  horses  would  be  unable  to  pull  their  loads.  A 
striking  example  of  this  may  be  seen  any  day  when  the 
roads  are  covered  with  sheets  of  ice  and  men  and  horses 
are  falling  in  every  direction.  Even  while  writing  these 
lines  I  have  received  a  notable  object  lesson  in  this  direc- 


LIGHTNING  NEVER  STRIKES  TWICE  IN  SAME  PLACE      187 

tion,  for  I  am  held  a  close  prisoner  in  the  house  of  a  friend 
because  the  whole  region  is  coated  with  a  sheet  of  ice  over 
which  it  would  be  impossible  for  an  elderly  person  to 
walk  with  safety.  And  all  owing  to  the  absence  of  fric- 
tion between  opposing  surfaces. 


THAT  LIGHTNING  NEVER  STRIKES  TWICE  IN 
THE  SAME  PLACE 

YLOR,  in  his  "  Researches  into  the  Early  History 
of  Mankind,"  traces  this  proverb  to  the  mythol- 
ogy of  India  and  notes  a  very  curious  connec- 
tion between  it  and  the  old  ceremonies  of  Easter 
eve,  when  new  fire  was  obtained  from  flint  and  hallowed 
against  all  great  dangers,  and  particularly  against  the 
lightning  stroke,  for  the  new  fire  was  supposed  to  be  akin 
to  lightning,  "  which  strikes  no  place  twice." 

But  in  these  days  it  undoubtedly  owes  its  general  ac- 
ceptance to  a  feeling  that  the  place  where  lightning  strikes 
is  a  matter  of  mere  chance  or  at  least  as  much  a  matter  of 
chance  as  would  be  the  location  of  a  bullet  fired  by  a  poor 
shot  at  a  large  target  from  a  considerable  distance. 

In  purely  mechanical  or  physical  operations  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  chance.  The  poet  very  truly  tells  us: 

All  nature  is  but  Art  unknown  to  thee; 

All  Chance,  Direction  which  thou  canst  not  see. 

In  the  toss  of  a  penny  or  the  throw  of  a  die  the  result 
depends  upon  immutable  laws;  and  if  we  could  but  know 
the  action  of  the  various  forces  at  work,  that  is  to  say  the 
direction,  intensity,  and  the  point  of  application  of  each. 


188  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

we  could  predict  with  absolute  certainty  which  side  of  the 
penny  or  the  die  would  turn  up.  In  the  case  of  lightning, 
conditions  are  liable  to  change;  and  while  in  former  times 
lightning  may  have  struck  a  given  spot  several  times,  the 
erection  of  lightning  conductors,  the  growth  of  trees,  and 
other  changed  conditions  may  have  so  altered  the  relation 
of  a  given  spot  to  the  clouds  that  the  path  of  the  discharge 
will  be  entirely  changed.  But  that  particular  buildings 
and  places  have  been  struck  by  lightning  time  and  again 
is  a  matter  of  unquestionable  record,  the  following  instances 
being  well  authenticated. 

The  Cathedral  of  St.  Peter  in  Geneva,  although  so  ele- 
vated as  to  be  above  all  other  buildings  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, has  for  three  centuries  enjoyed  perfect  immunity 
from  damage  by  lightning,  while  the  tower  of  St.  Gervaise, 
although  much  lower,  has  been  frequently  struck.  Another 
instance  is  that  of  a  church  on  the  estate  of  Count  Orsini, 
in  Carinthia.  This  building  is  placed  upon  an  eminence, 
and  had  been  struck  so  often  by  lightning  that  it  was  deemed 
no  longer  safe  to  celebrate  divine  service  within  its  walls. 
For  two  or  three  years  after  its  erection  the  church  of  St. 
Michael's  in  Charlestown  had  been  frequently  damaged 
by  lightning;  a  conductor  was  attached  to  it,  and  during 
the  following  fourteen  years  it  was  not  injured.  The  steeple 
of  St.  Mark's  in  Venice  has  a  height  of  340  feet,  and  was 
frequently  struck  by  lightning  until  a  proper  lightning 
conductor  was  attached  to  it,  after  which  it  remained 
uninjured. 


THAT  THE  FIRST  FIRE  WAS  PRODUCED  BY  THE 
FRICTION  OF  BRANCHES  OF  TREES  MOVED 
BY  THE  WIND 

JHIS  legend  has  been  adopted  from  the  works 
attributed  to  Sanchoniathon  but  now  generally 
considered  forgeries.  The  account  is  as  follows: 
"And  when  there  were  violent  storms  of  rain 
and  wind  the  trees  about  Tyre,  being  rubbed  against  each 
other,  took  fire,  and  all  the  forest  in  the  neighborhood  was 
consumed."  And  then  the  unknown  writer  goes  on  to 
tell  us  that  Usous  consecrated  two  pillars  to  fire  and  wind 
and  worshiped  them. 

This  statement  has  been  accepted  as  true  by  almost 
all  modern  writers,  and  even  some  of  our  recent  scientific 
authors,  who  certainly  ought  to  have  known  better,  have 
quoted  it  as  the  origin  of  the  primeval  method  of  obtaining 
fire  by  rubbing  two  sticks  together.  We  know  that  fire 
has  been  obtained  in  this  way,  for  it  was  a  common  method 
amongst  savages  and  was  practiced  by  the  Indians  of  this 
continent  in  early  days.  But  that  two  branches  moved 
by  the  intermittent  action  of  the  wind  and  cooled  by  both 
wind  and  rain  could  ever  attain  the  temperature  of  the 
ignition  point  of  wood  is  simply  incredible.  Almost  all 
violent  storms  of  wind  and  rain  are  accompanied  by  thun- 
der and  lightning,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  lightning 
may  have  set  fire  to  the  dry  rubbish  lying  at  the  foot  of 
the  tree  that  was  struck.  This  has  actually  occurred  in  the 
forests  of  Maine. 

189 


IpO  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

This  is  not  the  place  for  a  general  discussion  of  the  origin 
of  fire,  but  it  seems  to  me  more  than  likely  that  man  obtained 
his  first  practical  knowledge  of  fire  from  the  burning  wells 
which  abound  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  the 
acknowledged  cradle  of  the  human  race.  These  wells 
could  scarcely  escape  being  struck  and  set  on  fire  by  light- 
ning, and  some  of  them  have  been  burning  for  ages.  The 
wonderful  spectacle  and  the  pleasant  warmth  of  these 
burning  wells  would  be  sure  to  attract  those  who  came 
near  them,  and  this  was  no  doubt  the  source  from  which 
men  obtained  their  first  knowledge  of  fire,  an  agent  with- 
out which  civilization  would  have  been  impossible. 


THAT  VOLCANOES  ARE  "BURNING"  MOUNTAINS 


HE  term  "burning  mountain"  is  very  apt  to 
convey  a  wrong  impression  to  the  ordinary 
person;  he  thinks  of  it  as  he  does  of  a  fire  in  a 
stove  or  as  a  burning  forest  where  combustible 
materials  combine  with  the  oxygen  of  the  air  to  produce 
heat,  flames,  gas,  and  dust.  In  the  eruption  of  a  volcano 
none  of  these  phenomena  are  caused  to  any  considerable 
extent  by  combustion.  The  red-hot  matter  which  is  thrown 
out  was  probably  "burned"  ages  ago,  indeed  long  before 
this  earth  had  taken  on  its  present  characteristics  of  oceans 
and  continents  with  their  mountain  ranges,  rivers,  and 
lakes.  The  substances  which  are  thrown  out  by  a  volcano 
are  the  ashes  of  long-past  fires,  and  we  might  as  well  think 
of  burning  the  ashes  beneath  our  grates  as  to  burn  them. 

The  red-hot  and  sometimes  white-hot  material  thrown 
out  by  the  volcano  is  merely  a  sample  of  the  internal  con- 


THAT  VOLCANOES  ARE   "BURNING"  MOUNTAINS      191 

tents  of  the  globe,  which  is  covered  with  a  comparatively 
thin  crust  (from  thirty  to  fifty  miles  thick)  that  has  cooled 
off  during  past  ages  and  is  now  in  a  condition  in  which 
organic  beings  can  live  upon  its  surface.  A  volcano  is 
simply  a  hole  in  this  crust  through  which  the  melted  matter 
of  the  interior  and  the  steam  produced  by  the  infiltration 
of  water  are  ejected.  Several  causes  may  contribute  to 
the  ejection  of  this  volcanic  material,  amongst  the  prin- 
cipal being  the  following: 

1.  The  access  of  sea  water  through  one  or  more  fissures, 
thus  producing  enormous  pressure,  a  pressure  so  great 
that  dust  and  cinders  have  been  projected  to  a  height  of 
10,000  feet.    That  sea  water  is  the  cause  of  at  least  some 
eruptions  is  rendered  probable  by  the  large  proportion  of 
chlorides  present  in  the  ejected  matter. 

2.  The  pressure  of  deposits  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean, 
these  deposits  consisting  of  material  washed  down  from 
mountain  ranges  and  other  regions  through  which  large 
rivers  flow.     For  while  the  average  pressure  over  the  entire 
globe  would  not  be  disturbed  by  this  action,  it  is  very 
evident  that  large  local  deposits  over  a  limited  area  might 
easily  cause  the  comparatively  slight  disturbance  which 
would  be  necessary  to  produce  volcanic  phenomena.     These 
phenomena,  when  compared  with  the  vast  amount  of  ma- 
terial carried  out  to  sea  by  some  of  our  large  rivers,  are 
small.     Of  the  amount  of  this  material  few  people  have 
any  conception.    The  greatest  works  of  man  in  moving 
rocks  and  earth  are  insignificant  when  compared  with  it. 
The  weight  of  this  material  might  easily  cause  a  local  sink- 
age  of  the  crust  quite  sufficient  to  set  a  volcano  in  action 
or  to  open  up  a  new  vent  at  some  distant  point  along  the 
line  of  least  resistance. 


THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

3.  The  gradual  cooling  of  the  earth  and  the  consequent 
contraction  of  the  crust,  which  would  proceed  more  rapidly 
and  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  contraction  of  the  liquid 
interior.  That  the  earth  is  gradually  cooling  is  a  fact 
which  is  generally  accepted  by  scientific  men.  In  other 
words,  the  earth  radiates  into  space  an  amount  of  heat 
greater  than  that  which  it  receives  from  the  sun  and  stars. 
Consequently  the  crust  becomes  too  small  to  contain  the 
liquid  contents  of  the  globe  and  a  portion  of  the  latter  is 
ejected  at  the  point  of  least  resistance,  which  may  be 
either  an  old  vent  or  a  new  opening.  Cordier  has  calculated 
that  a  contraction  of  only  the  one-twenty-fifth  of  an  inch 
would  suffice  to  force  out  to  the  surface  lava  enough  for 
500  eruptions,  allowing  1300  million  cubic  yards  for  each 
eruption.  This  cooling  process  is,  however,  very  slow, 
so  slow  that  it  may  not  have  been  recognizable  during  the 
historic  period.  But  we  must  remember  that  an  amount 
which  would  be  quite  imperceptible  by  our  most  delicate 
instruments  would  be  sufficient  to  produce  all  the  volcanic 
phenomena  with  which  we  are  familiar. 


THAT  THE  FORCE  OF  DYNAMITE  IS  ALWAYS 
EXERTED  IN  A  DOWNWARD  DIRECTION 

T  is  a  well-known  fact  that  if  a  charge  of  dyna- 
mite be  laid  on  the  ground  and  exploded,  it 
will  make  a  deep  hollow,  and  if  it  be  placed  on 
a  slab  of  stone,  even  without  any  covering  or 
tamping,  as  it  is  called,  the  stone  will  be  broken  into 
shivers.  It  was  these  facts  that  led  to  the  belief  that 
dynamite  acted  only  in  a  downward  direction,  and  as  there 


THE  FORCE  OF  DYNAMITE  ALWAYS  DOWNWARD     193 

were  no  visible  effects  above  the  charge  (as,  indeed,  how 
could  there  be?)  the  theory  was  believed  to  have  been 
proved  beyond  doubt. 

But  every  engineer  and  miner  knows  that  if  the  slab  of 
stone  were  raised  from  the  ground  and  supported  on 
pillars,  the  dynamite  if  placed  under  it  would  shatter  it  as 
effectually  as  if  it  were  laid  on  the  top  of  it.  The  truth  is 
that  the  expansive  force  of  dynamite  has  no  tendency  to 
act  in  any  one  direction  rather  than  in  another.  Numer- 
ous experiments  prove  this  beyond  any  question. 

The  explanation  of  the  apparent  downward  action  of 
dynamite  is  quite  simple.  The  destructive  power  of  dyna- 
mite and  similar  explosives  is  due  to  the  tremendous  rapid- 
ity with  which  the  resulting  gases  expand  in  every  direction 
when  exploded;  indeed  so  rapid  is  this  explosive  action 
that  neither  solid  nor  aerial  matter  can  get  out  of  its  way 
fast  enough.  Black  gunpowder  when  burned  on  a  stone 
slab  (unless  the  quantity  be  very  large)  simply  gives  a 
slow  puff  and  passes  off  in  smoke.  A  little  of  it  burned 
on  the  palm  of  the  hand  burns  so  slowly  that  it  will  scorch 
the  flesh.  But  if  we  place  a  little  fulminating  mercury  on 
the  palm  of  the  hand  and  touch  it  with  a  spark  of  fire  it 
goes  off  with  a  sharp  puff  and  burns  so  rapidly  that  there 
is  no  time  for  it  to  impart  a  perceptible  amount  of  heat  to 
the  hand.  It  may  even  be  burned  on  a  pile  of  common 
black  gunpowder  without  setting  the  latter  on  fire.  If, 
however,  we  should  select  a  still  more  rapidly  expansive 
explosive,  such  as  dynamite,  and  set  that  off  on  the  hand, 
the  hand  would  probably  be  torn  to  shreds. 

Even  when  there  is  no  solid  material  placed  over  the 
dynamite  to  concentrate  the  action  of  the  expanding  gases, 
there  is  always  present  the  enormous  pressure  of  the  atmos- 


194  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

phere,  which,  as  a  resisting  medium,  under  some  condi- 
tions, is  almost 'as  effective  as  so  much  sand.  On  a  stone 
slab  three  feet  square  there  rests  a  load  of  air  weighing 
nearly  nine  tons.  Now  this  air,  if  moved  slowly,  does  not 
offer  much  resistance  to  the  moving  agent.  The  most 
delicate  fan,  if  moved  very  slowly  in  the  air,  does  not  even 
bend.  But  if  moved  rapidly  it  bends  very  perceptibly, 
and  if  moved  with  great  velocity  it  will  be  broken.  We 
can  easily  see,  therefore,  that  when  an  effort  is  made  to 
move  nine  tons  of  air  with  the  velocity  of  the  gases  evolved 
by  exploded  dynamite,  the  air  will  offer  almost  the  resist- 
ance of  a  solid  body,  and  a  stone  slab,  though  hard  and 
strong,  breaks  under  the  blow. 


THAT  THE  ART  OF  HARDENING  COPPER 
IS  LOST 

T  short  intervals  there  appears  in  our  different 
periodicals  an  article  telling  us  that  somebody 
has  found  a  lot  of  old  copper  tools  hard  enough 
to  cut  the  hardest  stone  and  bewailing  the  fact 
that  the  process  by  which  these  tools  were  hardened  by 
some  prehistoric  race  is  now  unknown  and  must  be  classed 
amongst  the  so-called  "lost  arts." 

That  the  Egyptians  and  some  other  peoples  knew  how 
to  harden  copper  is  unquestionably  true,  but  a  chemical 
analysis  of  their  tools  quickly  revealed  the  secret,  and  there 
has  never  been  a  time  since  then  when  we  could  not  pro- 
duce copper  tools  quite  as  good  as  those  of  the  ancients, 
and  probably  better.  During  his  investigations  into  metal- 
lic alloys  suitable  for  cutlery,  Faraday  produced  an  alloy 


THE  ART  OF  HARDENING   COPPER  LOST  19$ 

of  copper  which  took  an  edge  as  keen  and  showed  an 
endurance  as  great  as  that  of  anything  left  behind  them 
by  the  ancients.  Of  this  alloy  a  razor  was  made  which 
proved  quite  serviceable  but  was  not  equal  to  finely  tem- 
pered steel  and  consequently  it  offered  no  attraction  to  the 
modern  artisan. 

The  art  of  hardening  copper  is  not  lost,  but  it  has  fallen 
into  desuetude  for  two  reasons:  In  the  first  place  it  is  not 
as  efficient  as  good  steel,  and,  secondly,  copper  is  too  costly 
ever  to  take  the  place  of  the  cheaper  metal,  iron,  while  the 
latter  can  be  made  to  do  equally  good  work.  While  copper 
is  worth  several  cents  per  pound,  iron  is  worth  only  a 
fraction  of  a  cent.  This  fact  is  reason  enough  for  driving 
copper  out  of  use  as  a  material  for  making  cutting  tools. 

Careful  observation  shows  that  much  of  the  fine  stone- 
cutting  work  of  the  ancients  was  done  by  grinding  rather 
than  by  cutting.  I  doubt  very  much  if  any  tool  made 
prior  to  the  Christian  era  could  stand  the  hard  work  to 
which  the  picks  used  by  the  miller  in  dressing  his  mill- 
stones  are  subjected. 

This  matter  of  the  hardening  of  copper  is  a  very  fair 
sample  of  the  erroneous  ideas  prevalent  in  regard  to  the 
"Lost  Arts,"  a  subject  in  regard  to  which  the  late  Wendell 
Phillips  was  charmingly  eloquent  and  woefully  ignorant. 
All  the  arts  which  have  fallen  into  disuse  and  so  are  said 
to  have  been  lost,  have  been  merely  abandoned  because 
they  have  been  superseded  by  something  greatly  better. 


THAT  STEAM  CAN  BE  SEEN 


those  who  have  not  given  special  attention 
to  the  subject  see  a  cloud  of  vapor  floating  away 
from  a  locomotive  in  action,  the  feeling  is  irre- 
sistible that  they  see  the  steam  which  causes 
the  piston  to  move  in  the  cylinder.  This,  however,  is  far 
from  being  the  case.  What  they  really  see  is  a  collection 
of  fine  particles  of  water.  If  these  particles  had  been  in 
the  state  of  steam  they  would  have  been  in  the  form  of  an 
invisible  gas. 

The  truth  of  this  is  easily  proved.  Pour  a  little  water 
into  a  thin  glass  flask  or  a  test  tube  and  plug  the  mouth 
with  a  cork  having  a  small  hole  passing  through  it.  The 
hole  should  not  be  more  than  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter. Heat  the  water  in  the  flask  or  test  tube  over  a  spirit 
lamp  or  gas  flame  until  the  steam  rushes  out  of  the  hole 
in  the  cork  with  some  force.  The  flask  or  test  tube,  al- 
though filled  with  steam,  will  be  quite  transparent;  the 
steam  will  not  be  visible. 

Or  watch  a  jet  of  steam  issuing  from  the  cock  of  a  steam 
boiler  or  the  spout  of  a  teakettle  when  the  latter  is  boiling 
briskly;  as  the  steam  issues  from  the  cock  or  jet  it  will  be 
quite  invisible  for  a  short  distance,  but  when  cooled  a  little 
by  contact  with  the  air  it  becomes  vapor  and  is  easily  seen, 
but  then  it  is  not  steam. 


196 


THAT  HANNIBAL  USED  VINEGAR  TO  CUT  A  PAS- 
SAGE FOR  HIS  ARMY  ACROSS  THE  ALPS 

HIS  alleged  fact  forms  a  staple  illustration  in  the 
literature  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  cen- 
turies, and  I  have  recently  seen  an  allusion  to 
it  in  the  work  of  an  author  from  whom  I  should 
have  expected  better  things.  When  we  consider  the  enor- 
mous quantity  of  vinegar  which  would  be  required  to  re- 
move even  a  few  cubic  yards  of  limestone  or  similar  rock, 
the  absurdity  of  the  suggestion  becomes  apparent.  Where 
could  Hannibal  have  obtained  enough  vinegar  to  enable 
him  to  perform  this  feat? 

A  great  deal  of  ink  has  been  shed  in  the  effort  to  explain 
and  enforce  this  alleged  historical  fact  and  to  prove  that 
it  might  have  been  done,  but  the  only  satisfactory  expla- 
nation is  that  it  is  a  fiction  pure  and  simple. 


THAT  LARGE  LENSES   ARE  MORE   POWERFUL 
THAN  SMALL  ONES 

the  mind  of  the  ordinary  person  the  idea  of 
comparative  power  is  almost  always  associated 
with  that  of  comparative  size.  The  largest 
and  heaviest  locomotive  is  always  the  most 
powerful  and  so,  as  a  general  rule,  are  the  largest  animals 
of  the  same  species.  And  too  often  this  same  idea  is  applied 
to  lenses  or  magnifying  glasses. 

197 


198  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

Of  course  those  who  have  even  the  slightest  knowledge 
of  optics  and  the  construction  of  optical  instruments  can 
never  make  this  mistake,  but  a  very  large  majority  of  those 
whom  we  meet  in  daily  life  know  nothing  of  these  things, 
and  unfortunately  it  does  not  follow  because  a  boy  at 
school  has  gone  over  the  section  on  optics  in  his  Natural 
Philosophy,  that  therefore  he  understands  these  things. 

If  by  power  we  mean  the  extent  to  which  a  lens  magnifies 
any  object,  then  it  will  be  found  that  the  smallest  lenses 
are  the  most  powerful. 

It  is  a  very  elementary  truth  that  of  two  lenses  composed 
of  the  same  material  that  which  has  the  sharpest  curvature 
to  its  surfaces  will  magnify  most.  Now,  on  reflection  it 
will  be  evident  to  even  the  least  mathematical  mind  that 
lenses  which  have  very  sharp  or  " quick"  curves  must  of 
necessity  be  small.  Suppose  that  the  curve  which  bounds 
the  figure  of  a  lens  has  a  radius  of  half  an  inch;  then  it  is 
evident  that  the  largest  lens  which  could  be  made  with 
this  curve  would  be  one  inch  in  diameter  and  then  it  would 
either  be  a  perfect  sphere  or  approaching  a  plano-convex. 
Most  lenses,  however,  resemble  thin  slices  cut  off  the  spheres, 
either  making  a  plano-convex  lens  or  two  such  slices  joined 
together,  making  a  double  convex  lens,  so  that  the  diameter 
of  the  lens  is  in  general  much  less  than  the  diameter  of 
the  curves  which  form  its  surface.  Therefore  we  see  that  all 
lenses  of  high  power  are  of  necessity  small,  and  when  lenses 
are  required  of  very  high  power  they  become  so  minute  that 
they  can  be  handled  only  with  great  difficulty.  Indeed, 
before  the  modern  improvements  in  the  microscope  many 
of  the  lenses  used  by  scientific  men  were  nothing  more  than 
small  globules  of  glass  brought  to  a  round  form  by  fusion. 
And  they  were  the  most  powerful  microscopes  then  known. 


THAT  THE  SERPENT  HAS  A  STING  IN  ITS  TAIL      199 

The  idea  that  large  lenses  are  the  most  powerful  is  so  very 
prevalent  that  "Send  me  one  of  your  largest  and  most 
powerful  magnifiers,"  is  an  order  with  which  every  optician 
is  familiar,  and  yet  such  an  order  contains  a  positive  con- 
tradiction in  terms.  A  lens  cannot  possibly  be  very  large 
and  magnify  greatly  at  the  same  time. 


THAT  THE  SERPENT  HAS  A  STING  IN  ITS  TAIL 


HIS  curious  belief,  the  falsity  of  which  must 
have  been  known  to  every  country  boy,  seems 
to  have  permeated  our  literature  down  to  a  period 
well  along  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  I  do 
not  know  but  that  it  prevails  yet  amongst  the  litterateurs 
of  the  day.  In  Shakespeare  we  find  more  than  half  a  dozen 
passages  in  which  the  "sting"  of  the  serpent  is  spoken  of, 
and  the  Bible  tells  us  that  wine  "stingeth  like  an  adder." 
That  the  general  impression  derived  from  these  expressions 
was  that  adders,  snakes,  and  serpents  had  stings  in  their 
tails,  is  very  evident,  and  this  view  is  corroborated  by  a 
passage  in  Scott's  novel  "The  Monastery"1  in  which  the 
peddler  says:  "Now  let  us  hurry  down  the  hill;  for  to  tell 
the  truth  a  Scottish  noble's  march  is  like  a  serpent  —  the 
head  is  furnished  with  fangs,  and  the  tail  hath  its  sting; 
the  only  harmless  point  of  access  is  the  main  body. " 

And  as  that  which  is  unknown  is  generally  more  dreaded 
than  that  which  is  seen,  the  sting  of  the  tail  seems  to  have 
been  more  feared  than  the  fangs  of  the  head. 

1  Vol.  II,  Chap.  XVIII.  In  some  of  the  bastard  editions  where  the 
chapters  of  both  volumes  are  numbered  consecutively  this  would  be 
Chap.  XXXV. 


200  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

No  snake  or  serpent  has  a  sting  in  its  tail.  Its  only 
offensive  weapons  (exclusive  of  its  crushing  power)  are 
the  fangs  which  are  connected  with  certain  poison  glands 
in  the  head.  All  the  other  parts  and  organs  of  the  animal 
are  perfectly  harmless. 

THAT  THE  FORKED  TONGUE  OF  THE  SERPENT 
OR  SNAKE  IS  A  WEAPON  OF  OFFENSE 


HE  tongues  of  snakes  and  serpents  are  cleft  at 
the  end  and  have  always  been  an  emblem  of 
double  dealing,  treachery,  and  falsehood.  As  a 
mere  simile  for  a  human  being  with  a  deceitful 
tongue,  this  is  well  enough  and  may  pass  without  comment, 
but  it  will  not  serve  as  a  suggestion  for  a  truth  in  natural 
history,  since  it  has  no  foundation  in  fact. 

Nevertheless  in  all  ages  the  tongue  of  the  snake  or 
serpent  seems  to  have  impressed  humanity  with  a  feeling 
of  danger,  and  from  the  fact  that  when  snakes  are  irritated 
they  thrust  out  their  forked  tongues,  these  tongues  have 
been  regarded  as  a  weapon  of  offense,  something  to  be 
feared  and  avoided,  so  that  when,  in  "  Measure  for  Meas- 
ure" (Act  III,  Scene  i,  line  15),  the  Duke  says: 

Thou  art  by  no  means  valiant; 
For  thou  dost  fear  the  soft  and  tender  fork 
Of  a  poor  worm, 

Shakespeare  puts  into  his  mouth  words  which  no  doubt 
reflected  a  common  feeling  and  belief.  And  in  several 
other  passages  the  forked  tongue  of  the  snake  is  referred 
to  as  a  thing  of  danger.  It  was  a  popular  fallacy.  The 
serpent's  tongue  is  quite  harmless  in  comparison  with  the 
poisonous  fangs  of  a  venomous  and  treacherous  poet. 


THAT  A  HORSEHAIR  WHEN  PLACED  IN  A  POOL 
OF  WATER  TURNS  TO  A  SNAKE 

T  would  seem  that  this  was  formerly  a  very 
general  article  of  belief  among  the  country 
people  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Even 
Shakespeare  seems  to  have  accepted  the  current 

notion,  for  in  " Antony  and  Cleopatra"  (Act  I,  Scene  2, 

line  200)  we  find  the  following: 

Much  is  breeding, 

Which,  like  the  courser's  hair,  hath  yet  but  life 
And  not  a  serpent's  poison. 

Even  Sir  Thomas  Browne  in  his  elaborate  work  on  the 
" Vulgar  Errors"  of  his  time  (" Pseudodoxia  Epidemica") 
does  not  allude  to  this  error  in  natural  history,  though  we 
can  scarcely  believe  that  he  was  not  familiar  with  the  cur- 
rent notions  on  the  subject,  and  therefore  we  are  led  to  sus- 
pect that  he  accepted  the  popular  view  as  being  correct. 

The  error  arose  out  of  two  very  interesting  facts.  In 
the  first  place  there  is  a  species  of  threadworm  (the  Gor- 
dius  aquaticus)  which  at  one  stage  of  its  existence  is  para- 
sitic but  which  develops  in  stagnant  pools  and  so  closely 
resembles  an  animated  horsehair  that  it  gave  rise  to  the 
idea  that  it  was  really  a  horsehair  which  had  fallen  into 
the  water  and  had  become  alive. 

The  other  fact  was  that  when  a  dry  horsehair  is  placed 
in  water  it  frequently  moves,  just  as  a  thin  shaving  of  wood 
will  curl  and  move  when  laid  on  a  damp  surface  or  as  the 

201 


202  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

well-known  toy  called  the  artificial  fish  will  flop  its  tail 
when  after  being  well  dried  it  is  laid  on  the  moist  hand. 
In  these  cases  we  know  that  there  is  no  animal  life  either 
in  the  shaving  or  in  the  fish,  and  the  cause  of  the  phe- 
nomenon is  obvious  and  easily  explained;  but  in  the  case 
of  the  hair,  associated  as  it  is  with  a  real  living  worm  of 
almost  identical  appearance,  the  ordinary  mind  is  more 
easily  deceived.  The  general  impression  amongst  those 
who  have  not  made  a  special  study  of  the  subject  is  that 
voluntary  movement  on  the  part  of  any  organism  implies 
the  presence  of  animal  life,  and  for  a  long  time  several 
microscopic  plants  which  are  now  known  to  be  true  vege- 
tables, were  believed  to  be  animals  because  they  were 
seen  to  move  about  in  the  still  water  in  which  they  floated. 
This  was  the  case  with  many  diatoms  and  desmids,  and 
the  beautiful  volvox  globator,  which  is  unquestionably  a 
vegetable,  was  long  known  as  the  "globe  animalcule" 
and  was  believed  to  be  an  animal  because  it  seemed  to 
have  the  power  of  voluntary  motion.  Few  sights  are 
more  strikingly  beautiful  than  the  appearance  of  a  well- 
developed  volvox  passing  across  the  field  of  view  of  a 
microscope  with  a  steady  rolling  motion,  thus  giving  one 
the  impression  of  a  large  green  globe  obeying  the  instincts 
of  animal  life. 

This  free  motion  from  place  to  place  was  of  course  seen 
to  be  very  different  from  the  movement  of  the  sensitive 
plant  or  the  movement  of  flowers  under  the  action  of  the 
sun,  and  it  was  thought  that  it  could  only  be  attributed  to 
animal  life. 

Of  course  in  the  present  state  of  biological  knowledge  it 
would  be  futile  to  offer  any  arguments  against  this  old 
belief.  The  microscope  gives  us  ample  assurance  that  it  is 


THAT  HAIRS  ARE  TUBES  203 

false  and   the  life  history  of  the  Gordius  has  been  fully 
traced. 

It  may  interest  some  of  our  younger  readers  to  learn 
that  these  worms  get  the  name  Gordius  because  of  their 
curious  habit  of  coiling  themselves  into  complicated  knots 
—  veritable  "  Gordian  knots." 


THAT  HAIRS  ARE  TUBES 

we  look  through  a  strong  magnifying  glass 
a  human  hair  it  appears  to  the  uneducated 
eye  to  be  tubular  and  consequently  the  impres- 
sion very  generally  prevails  that  hairs,  like  quills, 
are  tubes.  This  fallacy  is  due  to  the  fact  that  since  the 
hair  is  nearly  cylindrical  there  is  generally  a  bright  line 
of  light  reflected  from  the  upper  part  of  the  surface,  and 
as  the  edges  are  in  shade  and  consequently  dark,  the  re- 
semblance to  a  tube  is  very  strong.  But  if  we  place  a 
bright  metallic  wire  under  a  microscope  and  examine  it 
as  a  dry  and  opaque  object,  the  same  bright  central  line 
and  dark  edges  will  appear  and  the  wire  will  seem  to  be  a 
tube,  although  we  know  that  such  is  not  the  case.  Of 
course  the  decisive  test  is  to  make  a  cross  section  of  the 
hair  and  examine  this  under  the  microscope  after  it  has 
been  properly  mounted.  The  interior  substance  of  the 
hair  will  then  be  found  to  consist  of  a  peculiar  fibrous  ma- 
terial with  sometimes  a  central  medullary  portion  composed 
of  spheroidal  cells. 

The  hairs  of  different  mammals  vary  greatly  in  their 
structure.    Those  of  the  cat,  squirrel,  mouse,  rabbit,  and 


204  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF   SCIENCE 

some  others  present  very  characteristic  appearances.  The 
large  hairs  of  the  deer  are  very  peculiar  when  viewed  as 
an  opaque  object.  Indeed  there  are  few  more  interesting 
objects  for  microscopical  study  than  hairs  with  their 
various  forms  and  structures. 


THAT  WORMS  SHALL  EAT  OUR  BODIES  AFTER 
WE  ARE  DECENTLY  BURIED 

HIS  is  a  very  old  belief.  In  the  Book  of  Job 
(Chap,  xix,  v.  25)  the  prophet  exclaims:  "And 
though  after  my  skin  worms  destroy  this  body, 
yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God." 

And  Shakespeare  makes  Hamlet  say  (Act  IV,  Scene  3, 
line  28):  "A  man  may  fish  with  the  worm  that  hath  eat 
of  a  king,  and  eat  of  the  fish  that  hath  fed  of  that  worm." 

Rosalind  also  boldly  avers  that  "men  have  died  from 
time  to  time,  and  worms  have  eaten  them,  but  not  for  love  " 
("As  You  Like  It,"  Act.  IV,  Scene  i,  line  107). 

And  all  through  our  literature  the  same  idea  prevails. 
No  wonder  then  that  the  popular  mind  is  firm  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  the  fate  of  humanity  to  be  eaten  by  worms  if  not 
consumed  by  fire  or  consigned  to  the  fishes.  And  the 
worm  that  is  usually  thought  of  in  this  connection  is  the 
common  earthworm  or  angleworm  as  it  is  usually  called. 

Now  in  the  first  place  the  earthworm  does  not  feed  upon 
undecomposed  flesh;  I  have  never  met  them  in  a  putre- 
fying carcass.  Their  food  consists  chiefly  of  decaying 
vegetable  matter;  consequently  the  site  of  an  old  manure 
heap  is  a  choice  place  to  dig  for  them.  And,  secondly,  earth- 
worms are  scarcely  ever  found  at  the  depth  to  which  a  nor- 


WORMS  SHALL  EAT  OUR  BODIES  AFTER  BURIAL   205 

mal  grave  is  sunk,  that  is,  six  feet.  So  that  no  one  need 
fear  that  he  will  fall  a  prey  to  the  ordinary  garden  or  earth 
worm. 

That  an  uncared-for  corpse,  left  exposed  on  a  summer 
day,  would  soon  be  flyblown  and  that  the  eggs  deposited 
by  the  flies  would  develop  into  larvae  which  would  soon 
devour  the  body,  is  quite  true.  Linnaeus  tells  us  that  the 
progeny  of  three  blowflies  would  devour  the  carcass  of  an 
ox  as  quickly  as  would  a  lion.  So  that  it  is  pretty  certain 
that  they  would  make  quick  work  with  an  unprotected 
corpse.  But  such  a  condition  never  occurs  in  civilized 
life  where  death  takes  place  amongst  relatives  and  friends. 

But  while  we  do  not  stand  in  much  danger  of  being 
eaten  by  earthworms  or  the  larvae  of  insects,  it  is  very 
certain  that  every  man  carries  into  his  grave  those  devour- 
ing agents  which  though  invisible  to  ordinary  sight  will 
accomplish  the  destruction  of  his  body  quite  as  effectually 
as  could  those  grosser  creatures  of  which  so  many  stand 
in  dread.  Unless  destroyed  by  powerful  embalming 
agents  the  microbes  which  cause  putrefaction  and  which 
are  always  present  in  inconceivable  numbers  will  sooner 
or  later  cause  the  materials  of  this  worn-out  garment 
which  we  call  our  body  to  return  to  the  elements  whence 
they  came.  From  birth  to  death  we  have  been  contin- 
ually borrowing,  continually  paying  back.  Part  of  our 
physical  organization  may  have  come  from  the  fruits 
of  the  tropics,  part  from  the  mosses  and  lichens  of  the 
frozen  north.  We  may  hold  in  our  bones,  muscles,  and 
brains,  materials  which  once  formed  part  of  the  gentle 
sheep  or  the  ravenous  wolf,  and  in  all  the  millions  of  years 
during  which  the  composition  and  decomposition  of  organic 
matter  has  gone  on,  it  is  quite  probable  that  some  portion 


206  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

of  our  physical  system  may  have  previously  formed  part 
of  the  material  organization  of  thousands  of  other  animals, 
men  included.  The  imbecile  may  have  in  his  body  atoms 
which  once  formed  part  of  Homer,  of  Plato,  or  of  Archi- 
medes. Into  the  wretched  frame  of  the  beggar  may  be 
built  material  which  once  formed  part  of  Solomon  in  all 
his  glory  or  of  Croesus  with  all  his  wealth,  and  some  of  the 
atoms  which  by  their  changes  enabled  such  generals  as 
Alexander,  Caesar,  or  Bruce  to  achieve  their  fame,  may 
now  form  part  of  the  body  of  a  lazar.  For  all  power  is 
due  to  the  energy  derived  from  the  change  of  material. 

Even  among  the  corporeal  atoms  which  now  make  up 
our  own  bodies  may  be  particles  which  helped  to  incarnate 
the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  or  which  lent  physical  energy 
to  the  burning  eloquence  of  Saint  Paul. 

Organic  life  has  gone  on  unceasingly  for  untold  ages  in 
ever-recurring  cycles  and  it  will  continue  to  go  on  while 
the  earth  endures.  Not  a  single  moment  passes  in  which 
some  part  of  every  living  organism  does  not  die.  We 
cannot  move  a  muscle  or  give  way  to  an  emotion  or  even 
think  a  thought  without  burning  up  some  part  of  our  cor- 
poreal frame  and  the  used-up  material  is  speedily  ejected 
and  then  transformed  into  the  clothing  of  a  new  life. 


THAT  A  DECAYING  CARCASS  BREEDS  WORMS 

HIS  erroneous  belief  was  much  more  prevalent 
half  a  century  ago  than  it  is  to-day.  In  the 
olden  time  it  was  commonly  held  that  all  kinds 
of  creatures  might  be  "generated,"  as  it  was 
termed,  out  of  decaying  matter,  and  it  was  supposed  that 
animals  of  even  such  a  high  degree  of  development  as  birds 
might  be  evolved,  in  a  single  generation  out  of  some  lower 
form.  Thus  the  barnacle  goose  was  said  to  be  a  metamor- 
phosed barnacle,  the  latter  being  a  marine  animal  of  no  very 
high  grade. 

And  Virgil  in  his  poem  on  country  matters  gives  minute 
directions  for  raising  a  swarm  of  bees  out  of  a  dead  carcass. 
It  is  very  certain,  however,  that  no  swarm  was  ever  raised 
in  this  way. 

So  too  Shakespeare  makes  Lepidus  say:  "Your  serpent 
of  Egypt  is  bred  now  of  your  mud  by  the  operation  of 
your  sun;  so  is  your  crocodile"  ("Antony  and  Cleopatra," 
Act  II,  Scene  7,  line  29). 

And  his  audiences  probably  did  not  doubt  the  state- 
ment even  in  regard  to  such  a  highly  developed  animal 
as  the  crocodile.  But  it  is  no  wonder  that  such  opinions 
should  prevail  generally  amongst  the  people  at  large,  for 
everywhere  we  see  life  developing  under  conditions  and 
in  ways  which  hide  their  origin  from  the  ordinary  observer 
because  he  has  not  been  taught  to  direct  his  attention  to 
them.  He  sees  the  larvae  or  worms  which  are  devouring 
the  dead  carcass,  but  he  did  not  see  the  minute  eggs  from 

207 


208  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

which  the  larvae  were  developed  simply  because  he  did 
not  look  for  them.  Consequently  it  was  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  for  him  to  suppose  that  they  owed 
their  origin  to  the  putrefying  action  of  the  carcass  itself. 
As  we  examine  other  forms  of  animal  life  the  difficulty  of 
ascertaining  their  origin  becomes  in  many  cases  very  great 
and  in  the  case  of  some  parasites  it  has  required  the  labo- 
rious efforts  of  the  ablest  biologists  to  make  out  their  life 
history.  Until  a  few  decades  ago  the  different  life  stages 
of  certain  marine  animals  were  regarded  as  entirely  differ- 
ent species  and  each  stage  was  classified  as  being  an  en- 
tirely distinct  animal.  And  it  is  within  the  memory  of 
living  men  that  the  parr,  a  small  fish  which  swarms  in  all 
salmon  rivers,  was  considered  a  distinct  species  and  was 
allowed  to  be  slaughtered  without  limit,  whereas  it  is  now 
known  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt  that  it  is  the 
young  of  the  salmon  and  is  carefully  protected. 

And  it  is  now  very  certain  that  no  creatures  which  show 
distinct  animal  characteristics  ever  appear  except  as  the 
progeny  of  animals  of  the  same  kind. 


THAT  SMALL  FLIES  ARE  THE  YOUNG  OF 
LARGE  FLIES 


VERY  observing  person  must  have  noticed  that 
the  flies  which  infest  our  houses  differ  greatly  in 
size,  some  being  very  small  while  others  of  simi- 
lar general  appearance  are  quite  large.  And  it 
is  a  very  common  idea  that  these  small  flies  are  small 
simply  because  they  are  young  and  that  if  they  are  allowed 
to  live  they  will  grow  larger.  It  is  very  natural  that  this 


THAT  DRAGON  FLIES  STING  MEN  209 

mistake  should  be  made  by  those  who  have  never  given 
special  attention  to  the  manner  in  which  insects  are  de- 
veloped from  the  egg.  But  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  flies, 
bees,  wasps,  butterflies,  moths,  etc.,  are  as  large  at  the 
time  they  emerge  from  the  cocoon  or  cell  as  they  ever  are 
afterwards.  All  their  growth  is  made  while  in  the  larval 
condition  —  that  is  as  caterpillars  or  " worms."  Hence 
the  voracity  of  the  caterpillar  and  the  so-called  "worms" 
of  clothes  moths.  After  the  insect  becomes  mature  it 
never  changes,  and  the  difference  of  size  in  the  flies  with 
which  we  are  familiar  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
different  kinds  or  species. 

THAT  DRAGON  FLIES  STING  MEN  AND  OTHER 
ANIMALS 

T  is  an  old  saying,  "You  might  as  well  hang  a 
dog  as  give  him  a  bad  name."  This  is  eminently 
true  of  the  dragon  fly,  of  which  there  are  a  vast 
number  of  species  and  to  which  many  evil  names 
have  been  given.  Thus  it  has  been  called  "the  devil's 
darning  needle,"  "the  horse  stinger,"  "the  snake-feeder," 
and  other  vile  names.  And  amongst  children  whose  edu- 
cation in  natural  history  has  been  neglected  there  is  a  very 
prevalent  belief  that  the  devil's  darning  needle  can  go  in 
at  one  ear,  pass  through  the  head  and  come  out  at  the 
other  ear,  and  that  various  dire  diseases  are  the  result  of 
this  action  on  its  part. 

Now  it  is  a  well-ascertained  fact  that  the  dragon  fly  is 
one  of  our  best  friends;  it  has  no  sting  and  its  biting  appa- 
ratus is  so  feeble  that  one  may  be  safely  caught  in  the 
bare  hand  and  held  without  injury  to  the  captor. 


210  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

The  dragon  fly  lives  entirely  on  flies,  mosquitoes,  and 
other  insects  which  it  captures  on  the  wing,  and  when  a 
room  is  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  dragon  fly  for  a  visitor, 
all  mosquitoes  and  flies  are  quickly  removed.  And  yet, 
notwithstanding  this  well-known  fact,  let  a  dragon  fly 
appear  in  an  assembly  of  young  people  (or  old  ones  either, 
for  that  matter)  and  there  will  be  an  intense  commotion 
and  every  young  man  in  the  party  will  be  put  on  his  mettle 
in  an  effort  to  kill  the  terrible  beast. 

So  well  known  to  naturalists  are  the  good  offices  of  the 
dragon  fly  that  some  years  ago  an  effort  was  made  to  propa- 
gate them  as  an  enemy  of  the  mosquito.  It  was  found, 
however,  that  while  the  dragon  flies  were  active  destroyers 
of  the  mosquito  they  retired  early  in  the  evening,  while  the 
late  evening  and  night  is  just  the  time  when  the  mosqui- 
toes are  most  active.  In  addition  to  this  the  larvae  of  the 
dragon  fly  are  very  destructive  to  small  fish,  and  these  are 
well  known  to  be  the  most  efficient  destroyers  of  the  larvae 
of  the  mosquito.  A  dozen  small  fish  will  clean  out  all 
the  mosquito  larvae  in  a  small  pool  of  water,  and  what  is 
more,  they  will  keep  it  clear  of  these  pests.  And  as  the 
larvae  of  the  mosquito  are  almost  always  bred  in  stagnant 
pools,  this  is  the  most  effective  mode  of  getting  rid  of  them. 

The  larvae  of  the  larger  species  of  dragon  fly  are  fierce, 
carnivorous  creatures  of  which  the  common  name  is  "the 
water-devil."  They  spare  nothing  that  comes  within  their 
reach  and  that  they  can  overcome  —  not  even  weaker 
individuals  of  their  own  species.  But  the  mature  insect 
is  a  harmless  and  indeed  a  beneficent  creature  and  it  never 
stings,  for  it  has  no  sting. 


THAT   POWDERED    GLASS    IS    A    SECRET   AND 
DEADLY  POISON 


HIS  is  a  very  old  fallacy.  It  figures  in  the 
" Vulgar  Errors"  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne  and 
it  survives  even  to  this  day  amongst  a  certain 
class  of  pseudo-scientific  writers.  Even  within 
two  or  three  years  a  man  was  charged  with  committing 
murder  by  means  of  powdered  glass  and  was  tried  for  a 
capital  offense.  Of  course  the  physicians  who  went  on 
the  witness  stand  scouted  the  idea  of  powdered  glass 
acting  as  a  virulent  poison  and  one  of  them  offered  to 
swallow  a  tablespoonful  of  the  stuff  in  open  court.  Sir 
Thomas  Browne  experimented  with  it  on  dogs  and  tells 
us  that  he  gave  "unto  dogs  above  a  dram  thereof  sub- 
tilely  powdered  in  butter  and  paste,  without  any  visible 
disturbance."  Nevertheless  he  tells  us  that  "glass  grossly 
or  -coarsely  powdered  is  mortally  noxious,  and  effectually 
used  by  some  to  destroy  mice  and  rats." 

This  idea  that  powdered  glass  is  an  efficient  poison  for 
rats  and  mice  is  quite  prevalent,  but  it  has  been  proved 
by  recent  experiments  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  that  glass, 
whether  coarsely  or  finely  powdered,  has  no  ill  effects 
upon  rats.  Rats  were  fed  for  some  time  on  food  mixed 
with  the  glass  and  they  did  not  seem  to  be  injured  by  it. 
And  when  examined  after  being  killed,  the  alimentary 
canal  was  found  to  be  in  normal  condition.  So  that  we 
may  safely  relegate  the  belief  in  powdered  glass  as  a 
poison  to  the  list  of  popular  fallacies. 

211 


THAT  A  MAN  BECOMES  OF  AGE  ON  HIS 
TWENTY-FIRST  BIRTHDAY 


HIS  might  be  regarded  rather  as  an  error  of 
speech  than  as  a  fallacy  of  thought  were  it  not 
that  the  same  erroneous  idea  has  been  carried 
into  other  conceptions  and  has  given  rise  to 
serious  error  which  has  sometimes  been  of  a  practical 
nature. 

When  a  man  reaches  his  twenty-first  birthday  it  is 
evident  that  he  has  lived  only  twenty  full  years.  On  his 
first  birthday  he  was  just  beginning  life  and  it  was  only 
on  his  second  birthday  that  he  reached  the  age  of  one 
year.  The  same  difference  between  the  number  of  his 
birthdays  and  the  number  of  his  years  continues  all  his 
life,  and  it  is  only  on  his  twenty-second  birthday  that  he 
has  lived  out  the  twenty-one  years  which  entitle  him  to 
vote  in  this  country  and  which  confer  upon  him  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  adolescence. 

The  same  discrepancy  appears  in  the  numbering  of  the 
centuries  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  hear  the  seven- 
teenth century  spoken  of  as  the  sixteenth  because  it  ran 
from  1601  to  1699,  only  the  last  year  (1700)  having  17 
before  the  other  two  figures.  Indeed  I  have  seen  in  print, 
under  the  authorship  of  one  who  must  certainly  have 
known  better,  the  seventeenth  century  named  when  the 
eighteenth  was  what  was  intended. 

It  was  not  until  the  close  of  1900  that  the  nineteenth 
century  rounded  out  its  full  quota  of  years,  and  it  was 

213 


THAT  "THE  EXCEPTION  PROVES  THE  RULE "  213 

with  the  beginning  of  1901  that  the  twentieth  century 
commenced  its  run.  And  although  the  attempt  was 
actually  made,  yet  all  the  edicts  and  laws  of  kings  and 
Kaisers  could  not  alter  this  mathematical  fact. 


THAT  "THE  EXCEPTION  PROVES  THE  RULE" 

IJHIS  very  common  expression  is  a  singular  mis- 
conception as  to  the  meaning  of  an  old  Latin 
proverb,  Exceptio  probat  regulam.  The  word 
probat  used  here  really  means  to  test,  but  it 
may  be  translated  proves,  since  the  word  prove  also  means 
to  test,  as  is  seen  in  its  use  in  relation  to  the  proving  of 
cannon,  the  place  where  the  guns  are  fired  being  called 
"proving"  grounds,  or  in  other  words,  testing  grounds. 
Therefore  the  expression  quoted  at  the  head  of  this  note 
does  not  mean  that  the  exception  confirms  or  ratifies  the 
rule,  but  that  it  tests  or  tries  it,  and  if  the  exception  cannot 
be  easily  explained  away,  the  rule  breaks  down. 

For  example:  a  somewhat  positive  person  asserted  that 
the  only  case  in  which  the  letter  s  had  the  sound  sh  when 
it  preceded  the  vowel  u  was  in  the  word  sugar,  and  was  at 
once  met  with  the  question:  "Are  you  sure?"  His  rule, 
if  rule  it  could  be  called,  broke  down  on  being  proved  or 
tested. 


THAT  CINDERELLA'S  SLIPPER  WAS  OF 
GLASS 

>T  people  would  think  that  glass  as  we  know 
it,  whether  blown  or  cast,  would  not  make  a 
very  serviceable  slipper,  and  we  have  no  reason 
to  believe  that  it  was  made  of  spun  glass.  But 
all  doubt  in  regard  to  the  material  of  which  the  slipper 
was  made  is  set  at  rest  by  referring  to  the  original  French 
version  of  the  story,  of  which  ours  is  a  translation.  There 
we  are  told  that  it  was  a  slipper  of  vair,  the  French  for 
fur.  This  word  the  translator  mistook  for  verre,  which 
means  glass,  and  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  all  English- 
speaking  people  believe  that  Cinderella's  slipper  was  made 
of  glass.  In  the  German  version  the  slipper  is  of  gold. 

The  story  is  very, old  and  a  similar  legend  is  told  of 
Rhodope,  the  famous  Egyptian  courtesan  who  was  said  to 
have  built  the  third  pyramid.  While  she  was  bathing, 
her  slipper  was  carried  off  by  an  eagle  and  dropped  in 
the  lap  of  the  Egyptian  king,  who  was  so  struck  with  its 
beauty  that  he  sought  out  the  owner  and  made  her  his 
queen.  See  "  The  Shakespeare  Cyclopedia,"  page  258. 


3*4 


THAT  GLASS  IS  VERY  HARD 

|E  are  led  to  believe  that  this  error  is  very  preva- 
lent because  the  expression  "as  hard  as  glass" 
is  used  as  a  comparison  by  some  manufacturing 
firms  in  their  advertisements  of  goods  in  which 
hardness  is  a  specially  desirable  quality.  And  we  are 
confirmed  in  this  view  by  the  fact  that  the  editor  of  one 
of  our  mechanical  journals  actually  defended  the  implied 
statement  on  the  ground  that  glass  is  very  brittle! 

Hardness,  as  we  all  know,  is  a  comparative  term.  Copper 
is  hard  when  compared  with  lead;  it  is  soft  when  compared 
with  brass,  and  brass  is  soft  when  compared  with  common 
iron.  The  latter  is  soft  when  compared  with  steel,  and 
steel  itself  is  soft  when  compared  with  iridium  or  with  the 
diamond. 

Glass,  however,  according  to  all  the  scientific  tests 
used  by  the  mineralogist  and  the  physicist,  is  quite  soft. 
It  is  easily  scratched  by  flint  and  by  several  minerals  of 
that  grade,  while  flint  is  easily  scratched  by  carborundum, 
ruby,  and  some  other  substances  —  the  hardest  material 
known  being  the  diamond. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  next  to  the  diamond,  the  hardest 
substance  should  be  an  artificial  product  —  carborundum. 
It  readily  cuts  the  hardest  materials,  and  is  invaluable  as 
an  abrasive. 

Different  kinds  of  glass  vary  greatly  in  hardness,  but 
they  are  all  comparatively  soft  and  may  be  cut  by  a  good 
steel  tool.  It  is  a  common  practice  amongst  amateur 

215 


216  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

opticians  to  shape  pieces  of  glass  into  lenses  in  the  turning 
lathe  just  as  they  would  shape  a  piece  of  iron  or  steel. 
An  ordinarily  hard  steel  graver  will  cut  glass  as  if  the 
latter  were  cheese,  and  a  bit  of  fine  glass  may  soon  be 
brought  so  nearly  to  the  proper  curve  that  it  will  require 
merely  a  little  polishing  to  make  a  good  magnifier.  I  have 
three  or  four  lenses  which  were  thus  made  and  which  are 
very  convenient  and  serviceable. 

It  has  been  argued  that  glass  must  be  hard  because  it 
is  so  brittle.  But  sugar  is  quite  as  brittle  and  it  is  cer- 
tainly very  much  softer.  Hardness  and  brittleness  have 
no  necessary  relation  to  each  other,  although  substances 
which  by  the  usual  process  of  hardening  are  made  as 
hard  as  possible  frequently  become  very  brittle.  This  is 
true  of  steel  and  glass,  both  of  which  when  unannealed 
are  harder  than  usual  and  very  brittle.  But  even  the 
most  brittle  glass  is  comparatively  soft. 

If  our  advertising  friends  would  say  "as  smooth  as  glass " 
their  claims  would  probably  be  much  more  attractive  and 
certainly  far  more  accurate.  Their  goods  being  made  of 
hardened  steel  are  far  harder  than  any  glass  that  ever 
was  produced. 

THAT  FRANKENSTEIN  WAS  A  MONSTER 


HIS  atrocious  literary  blunder  has  become  so 
common  and  has  been  so  frequently  accepted 
as  true  by  writers  of  notable  reputation  that  a 
correspondent  of  one  of  our  literary  journals 
actually  defended  the  use  of  the  expression,  "the 
monster  Frankenstein,"  on  the  ground  that  the  idea  had 
now  become  part  of  the  mental  furniture  of  the  majority 


THAT  FRANKENSTEIN  WAS  A  MONSTER  217 

of  literary  men!  The  assertion  that  the  majority  of 
fairly  well-read  men,  not  to  speak  of  men  whose  profession 
is  literature,  are  ignorant  of  the  general  outlines  of  the 
story  of  Frankenstein  is  certainly  incorrect,  and  to  say 
that  if  we  only  give  a  mistake  or  a  falsehood  circulation 
enough  it  will  be  converted  into  a  truth  is  to  propound  a 
system  of  ethics  which  few  will  be  willing  to  accept. 

"  Frankenstein,"  as  many  of  the  readers  of  this  page  know, 
is  the  title  of  a  romance  written  by  Mrs.  Mary  Wollstone- 
craf t  Shelley,  the  wife  of  the  famous  poet.  It  was  written 
under  very  peculiar  circumstances,  which  Mrs.  Shelley 
herself  has  detailed  in  the  first  and  second  prefaces  to  the 
book  and  which  have  been  so  frequently  quoted  that  it 
is  unnecessary  to  do  more  than  allude  to  them  here.  Mrs. 
Shelley  was  but  nineteen  when  she  began  this  story,  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  literature  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  substance  of  it  is  as  follows: 

Frankenstein  was  a  student  of  science  at  Ingolstadt, 
and  the  question  "Whence  did  the  principle  of  life  pro- 
ceed?" occupied  his  thoughts  beyond  any  other.  At 
length  he  thought  he  had  solved  it  and  he  set  about  con- 
structing a  human  being  into  which  he  could  infuse  life. 
To  avoid  the  great  difficulty  of  working  on  very  minute 
organs  he  made  his  man  eight  feet  high  and  large  in  pro- 
portion. After  two  years'  hard  work  he  finished  the  con- 
struction of  this  being  and  succeeded  in  vitalizing  it. 
When  he  had  accomplished  his  task  and  the  creature 
showed  signs  of  life  he  was  horror-struck  at  the  sight  of 
the  fearful  monster  he  had  created  and  he  fled  from  it  in 
terror.  The  monster  escaped  to  the  woods  and  was  the 
terror  of  those  who  saw  it,  and  the  account  which  the 
creature  afterwards  gave  to  Frankenstein  of  the  way  in 


218  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

which  he  subsisted  and  how  he  learned  to  speak  and  to 
understand  French  showed  wonderful  imagination  on  the 
part  of  the  authoress.  And  the  account  which  the  monster 
gave  of  the  way  in  which  he  was  treated  by  everybody 
and  his  woeful  sense  of  isolation  is  very  pathetic.  But 
this  expulsion  from  all  association  with  any  other  being 
led  him  to  entertain  bitter  and  vengeful  feelings  against 
men  in  general  and  his  creator  in  particular.  He  murdered 
the  younger  brother  of  Frankenstein  and  contrived  to 
fix  the  crime  on  an  innocent  young  girl  who  was  executed 
for  it.  He  found  Frankenstein  in  the  mountains  and  made 
him  promise  that  he  would  create  a  mate  for  him,  a  female 
with  whom  he  might  associate  in  love  and  sympathy. 

Frankenstein  made  the  promise  and  set  about  the  work, 
but  before  it  was  completed  he  repented  and  destroyed 
the  creature  he  was  making.  Thereupon  the  monster  ap- 
peared and  threatened  him  with  the  most  dire  vengeance. 
He  killed  the  dearest  friend  that  Frankenstein  had  and 
swore  that  he  would  be  with  him  on  his  wedding  night. 
When  that  night  came  the  monster  murdered  the  bride 
of  Frankenstein  and  then  departed  for  the  region  of  the 
north  pole.  Frankenstein  attempted  to  follow  for  the  pur- 
pose of  destroying  the  demon,  but  in  the  northern  seas  he 
was  picked  up  in  an  exhausted  condition  by  a  ship  on 
board  of  which  he  expired  after  giving  a  full  account  of  all 
that  had  happened.  The  monster  fled  towards  the  north 
with  the  expressed  intention  of  immolating  himself  on  an 
immense  funeral  pyre. 

From  this  the  reader  will  see  that  Frankenstein  was  not 
the  monster  and  to  the  latter  no  name  is  given  in  the 
romance. 


WORDS  WHICH  CONVEY  ERRONEOUS  IDEAS 

T  is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  many  of  the  words 
in  common  use  actually  convey  erroneous  state- 
ments of  fact.  This  arises  partly  from  the  cor- 
^  ruption  to  which  all  words  in  common  use  are 

liable  and  partly  from  the  changes  which  are  constantly 
going  on  in  every  living  language.  A  change  of  this  kind 
is  seen  in  the  word  admire,  of  which  the  old  meaning  was 
simply  to  wonder,  and  in  this  sense  it  was  used  by  Shake- 
speare and  Milton.  But  it  carries  a  very  different  sig- 
nification now.  Again,  take  the  word  vulgar,  which  now 
conveys  the  idea  of  something  offensive.  Formerly  it 
merely  meant  common,  as  when  in  "Twelfth  Night"  Shake- 
speare makes  Viola  say:  "for  'tis  a  vulgar  proof  "  (Act  III, 
Scene  i,  line  135).  And  in  this  sense  it  is  still  used  in 
France,  where  they  have  a  journal  for  the  vulgarization  of 
science  ("  Vulgarisation  Scientifique  "),  or  what  we  would 
call  the  popularization  of  science.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
however,  the  words  vulgarization  and  popularization  both 
come  from  roots  which  signify  the  common  people. 

So  too  the  word  fond,  which  now  means  loving  or  affection- 
ate, formerly  meant  foolish,  and  is  so  used  by  Shakespeare 
in  several  passages,  notably  in  "The  Merchant  of  Venice," 
Act  III,  Scene  3,  line  9,  and  other  places  in  that  play. 

Perhaps  the  most  curious  transformation  of  meaning 
occurs  in  the  word  telescope,  which  literally  means  an  in- 
strument for  seeing  things  afar  off,  and  in  this  sense  it  is 
still  used  when  speaking  of  the  optical  instrument.  But 
from  the  fact  that  the  mechanical  portion  of  telescopes 

219 


220  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

was  generally  made  of  two  or  more  tubes  sliding  into 
each  other  the  word  came  by  analogy  to  be  applied  to  any 
combination  in  which  this  mere  mechanical  feature  was 
present,  and  now  we  speak  of  railroad  cars  "telescoping" 
when,  in  a  collision,  they  slide  one  into  the  other.  In 
this  case  optics  or  any  of  the  features  of  seeing  are  entirely 
absent  and  the  mere  mechanical  motion  alone  is  considered. 

Numerous  instances  might  be  cited  where  changes  in 
the  arts  and  in  our  customs  give  an  apparently  absurd 
meaning  to  old  words.  Thus  in  the  olden  time  distances 
were  marked  by  stones  set  up  at  regular  intervals  and 
called  milestones;  to-day  these  markers  are  sometimes  of 
wood  and  sometimes  of  metal,  but  we  still  retain  the  old 
term,  milestone,  and  then  we  have  wooden  milestones  and 
iron  milestones. 

Again:  The  old-time  pens  were  all  made  from  the  quills 
of  geese,  swans,  and  crows,  and  were  called  pens  because 
that,  in  its  Latin  form,  was  the  word  for  feathers.  Now 
quills  have  gone  out  of  use  and  we  have  gold  and  steel 
pens,  —  literally,  gold  and  steel  feathers. 

Before  the  introduction  of  steel  pens  almost  all  writing 
in  ink  was  done  by  means  of  quills.  These  wore  out  quite 
rapidly  and  upon  the  writing  master  and  some  of  his  most 
skillful  pupils  devolved  the  task  of  mending  the  pens  used 
in  the  writing  lessons  of  each  day.  This  was  done  by 
means  of  an  exceedingly  sharp  knife,  and  by  practice 
some  of  the  boys  became  very  expert  at  the  work.  The 
knife  used  for  this  purpose  was  called  a  pen-knife,  and  we 
still  retain  the  name  though  the  term  has  entirely  lost  its 
significance.  I  remember  well  the  time  when  steel  pens 
were  almost  unknown,  and  when  a  boy  I  have  made  and 
mended  hundreds  if  not  thousands  of  quill  pens. 


WORDS  WHICH  CONVEY  ERRONEOUS  IDEAS         221 

The  old  alchemical  nomenclature  introduced  several 
words  which  now  are  stumblingblocks  to  the  ordinary 
reader  of  modern  times.  For  example,  silver  nitrate  got 
its  old  name  of  lunar  caustic  from  the  fact  that  the  old 
alchemical  name  of  silver  was  luna  or  the  moon,  and  its 
compounds  were  known  as  lunar  salts.  The  ancients  were 
acquainted  with  seven  metals  and  also  with  seven  planets, 
for  in  their  system  the  sun  and  moon  were  classed  with  the 
planets.  This  led  to  the  theory  that  each  metal  had 
special  associations  with  its  own  planet  —  iron  with  Mars, 
copper  with  Venus,  lead  with  Saturn,  and  so  on.  This 
explains  why  salts  of  iron  were  called  martial  salts;  salts 
of  copper,  venereal  salts;  compounds  of  lead,  saturnine 
preparations,  and  so  with  the  others. 

The  following  list  contains  a  few  words  which  convey 
erroneous  ideas;  the  number  might  be  greatly  enlarged. 

BLACK  LEAD.  —  This  well-known  substance  has  no  lead 
at  all  in  its  composition;  it  is  simply  a  form  of  carbon, 
charcoal  and  the  diamond  being  other  forms.  Another 
name  for  it  is  plumbago,  but  this  is  just  as  bad,  for  this 
word  is  derived  from  the  Latin  name  for  lead  (plumbum). 
The  proper  name  is  graphite,  or  writing  material.  Black 
lead  no  doubt  got  its  name  from  the  fact  that  pencils  were 
originally  made  of  lead  or  of  one  of  its  alloys,  and  when 
graphite  was  substituted  for  the  metal  it  was  quite  natural 
to  call  it  black  lead  from  its  color.  But  nevertheless  it  is  a 
misnomer. 

BLIND  WORM.  —  Although  not  found  in  this  country, 
the  name  of  the  creature  is  so  often  mentioned  in  English 
literature  that  it  is  worth  while  to  note  the  fact  that  it  is 
neither  blind  nor  poisonous,  qualities  which  are  generally 
attributed  to  it  by  the  ignorant.  It  is  really  a  small  lizard. 


222  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

Its  eyes  are  small  but  very  bright  and  provided  with 
lids. 

CAMEL'S-HAIR  BRUSHES  are  not  made  from  the  hair  of 
camels  but  from  hair  from  the  tails  of  Russian  and  Sibe- 
rian squirrels.  Did  any  one  ever  try  to  use  the  hairs  of 
any  of  the  large  American  or  Canadian  squirrels  for  this 
purpose? 

CATGUT.  —  This  is  never  made  from  the  intestines  of 
cats  but  from  those  of  sheep  and  sometimes  of  horses.  It 
is  a  curious  fact  that  the  highly  fed  and  fat  sheep  of  the 
best  farming  countries  do  not  yield  materials  that  are 
fit  for  making  catgut.  The  lean,  hardy  sheep  of  the  north 
of  Italy  seem  to  furnish  the  best  article. 

CODDINGTON  LENS.  —  This  very  valuable  improvement 
in  magnifying  glasses  was  invented  by  Sir  David  Brewster 
and  it  ought  to  be  called  the  "Brewster  lens"  It  is  an 
inexpensive  form  of  simple  microscope,  and  although  not 
equal  to  a  well-made  achromatic  magnifier,  it  is  very  much 
cheaper  and  is  greatly  superior  to  the  ordinary  double  convex 
lens.  Coddington,  who  wrote  several  books  on  optics,  never 
claimed  to  be  the  inventor  of  this  form,  but  like  many  other 
inventions  it  has  been  credited  to  the  wrong  person. 

GALVANIC  BATTERY.  —  This  is  a  singular  misnomer 
which  for  a  time  was  applied  to  what  really  ought  to  be 
called  the  voltaic  battery,  since  the  combination  of  two 
metals  and  an  acid  (or  their  equivalents)  was  really  in- 
vented by  Volta.  Galvani  had  been  dead  some  years 
before  the  voltaic  pile  or  battery  was  given  to  the  world. 

FOXGLOVE.  —  The  syllable  fox  in  this  word  is  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  word  folks,  meaning  the  fairies  or  "  little  folks." 
It  should  be  folks'  glove. 

HYDROPHOBIA  is  a  very  misleading  term  as  applied  to 


WORDS  WHICH  CONVEY  ERRONEOUS  IDEAS         223 

so-called  mad  dogs.  A  dog  that  is  rabid  does  not  dread 
water;  he  will  lap  it  or  even  swim  in  it. 

JERUSALEM  ARTICHOKE.  —  This  is  a  curious  corruption  of 
the  Italian  name,  girasole  articiocco,  which  means  sunflower 
artichoke.  It  has  no  relation  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 
The  plant  is  a  native  of  this  continent. 

RICE  PAPER.  —  The  well-known  Chinese  rice  paper,  as 
it  is  called,  is  not  a  paper  at  all  but  a  thin  slice  of  the  pith 
of  a  herbaceous  Chinese  plant  (the  Aralia  papyrifera). 
The  pith  forms  a  cylinder,  and  with  a  long  and  very  sharp 
knife  a  slice  is  cut  from  the  surface,  the  cut  going  round 
and  round  in  a  spiral.  The  moist  slice  of  tissue  is  thus 
unrolled  from  the  cylinder  of  pith  and  dried  under  slight 
pressure  —  just  enough  to  cause  it  to  remain  flat.  It 
cannot  be  written  on  with  an  ordinary  pen  and  ink.  The 
Chinese  use  fine  brushes,  and  I  have  in  my  possession  some 
beautiful  water-color  paintings  done  by  a  Chinese  artist 
on  this  material.  This  "rice  paper"  forms  a  beautiful 
object  under  the  microscope,  as  it  shows  the  form  and 
arrangement  of  the  cells  very  clearly  under  a  low  power. 
Paper  may  be  made  and  has  been  made  from  rice  straw, 
but  it  is  an  article  very  different  from  the  real  Chinese 
"rice  paper." 

SEALING  WAX.  —  Good  sealing  wax,  as  used  now,  con- 
tains no  wax.  But  originally  it  consisted  of  almost  pure 
wax,  and  the  seal  was  not  affixed  to  the  document  as  is 
now  done.  The  old  seals  were  huge  lumps  of  wax  on  which 
the  seal  was  impressed,  and  they  were  attached  to  the 
document  by  means  of  a  ribbon  which  passed  through  the 
seal.  Our  modern  sealing  wax  is  composed  largely  of 
shellac. 

SPARROWGRASS.  —  This  word  is  obviously  a  corruption 


224  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

of  asparagus,  but  it  has  obtained  such  a  hold  upon  the 
speech  of  the  uneducated  that  the  market  gardeners  actu- 
ally contract  it  to  "grass"  and  when  speaking  of  asparagus 
they  call  it  "grass"  for  short.  It  has  no  affinity  to  the 
true  grasses,  and  sparrows  do  not  seem  to  be  particularly 
fond  of  it,  though  they  will  occasionally  eat  it  as  they  do 
peas  and  many  other  green  things  in  the  spring. 

WHALEBONE  is  not  bone  at  all  but  a  peculiar  horny 
substance  of  which  the  scientific  name  is  baleen. 

WORMWOOD.  —  This  is  a  corruption  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
wermod  or  wermode,  which  means  the  keeper  or  strengthener 
of  the  mind.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  worms  or  wood. 
The  plant  (absinthe)  furnishes  a  powerful  tonic.  The 
word  vermuth  seems  to  be  a  form  of  wermod. 


"KNOWLEDGE  IS  POWER" 

0  proverb  ever  received  more  emphatic  confirma- 
tion than  that  given  to  the  above  during  the 
century  just  past.  Whether  the  power  be  for 
good  or  for  evil,  knowledge  is  its  source.  A 
single  modern  battleship  would  be  more  than  a  match  for 
all  the  fleets  in  existence  three  hundred  years  ago.  And 
when  we  turn  to  the  triumphs  of  peace  we  find  ocean  liners 
that  can  brave  any  storm;  while  such  well-known  inven- 
tions as  railroads,  telegraphs,  telephones,  fast  printing 
presses  and  others  which  have  changed  all  our  social  con- 
ditions, are  all  due  to  increased  knowledge. 

A  few  pages  back  we  quoted  the  saying  of  Archimedes: 
"Give  me  a  fulcrum  and  I  will  raise  the  world."  There 
is  a  modern  saying  which  has  become  almost  as  famous 
amongst  English-speaking  peoples  as  is  that  of  Archimedes 
to  the  world  at  large.  It  is  that  which  Bulwer  Lytton 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Richelieu,  in  his  well-known  play 
of  that  name: 

"  Beneath  the  rule  of  men  entirely  great 
THE  PEN  is  MIGHTIER  THAN  THE  SWOSD." 

About  thirty  years  ago  it  occurred  to  the  writer  that 
these  two  epigrammatic  sayings  —  that  of  Archimedes  and 
that  of  Bulwer  Lytton  —  might  be  symbolized  in  an  alle- 
gorical drawing  which  would  forcibly  express  the  ideas 
which  they  contain,  and  the  question  immediately  arose  — 
Where  will  Archimedes  get  his  fulcrum  and  what  can  he 
use  as  a  lever? 

225 


826  THE  SEVEN  FOLLIES  OF  SCIENCE 

And  the  mental  answer  was:  Let  the  pen  be  the  lever 
and  the  printing  press  the  fulcrum,  while  the  sword,  used 
for  the  same  purpose  but  resting  on  glory,  or  in  other 
words,  having  no  substantial  fulcrum,  breaks  in  the  attempt. 

The  little  engraving  which,  with  a  new  motto,  forms  a 
fitting  tailpiece  to  this  volume,  was  the  outcome. 

It  is  true  that  the  pen  is  mighty,  and  in  the  hands  of 
philosophers  and  diplomats  it  accomplishes  much,  but  it  is 
only  when  resting  on  the  printing  press  that  it  is  provided 
with  that  fulcrum  which  enables  it  to  raise  the  world  by 
diffusing  knowledge,  inculcating  morality,  and  providing 
pleasure  and  culture  for  humanity  at  large. 

When  assigned  to  such  a  task  the  sword  breaks,  and 
well  it  may.  But  we  have  a  well-grounded  hope  that 
through  the  influence  of  the  pen  and  the  printing  press 
there  will  soon  come  an  era  of  universal 


peace  on  Bartb  anD  GOOD  Will  toward  dfcen. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Absurdities  in  perpetual  motion    .    .  42 
Accuracy    of    modern    methods    of 

squaring  the  circle 17 

Adams,  perpetual  motion 71 

Age,  when  a  man  becomes  of     ...  212 

Ahaz,  dial  of 133 

Air,  liquid 65 

Alchemical  names 221 

Alkahest,  or  universal  solvent   .    .    .  104 

Altar  of  Apollo 30 

Angelo,    Michael,    finely    engraved 

seal 136 

Angle,  trisection  of 33 

Apollo,  altar  of 30 

Approximations  to  ratio  of  diameter 

to  circumference  of  circle    ...  17 

De  Morgan's  illustration  of   ...  18 

New  illustration  of 19 

Archimedean  screw 49 

Archimedes,  area  of  circle 13 

Ratio  of  circumference  to  diameter  14 

Archimedes  and  his  fulcrum  ....  171 

Arithmetic  of  the  ancients     ....  15 

Arithmetical  problems 163 

Chess-board  problem 163 

Nail  problem 164 

A  question  of  population    ....  165 

How  to  become  a  millionaire.    .    .  166 

Cost  of  first  folio  Shakespeare  .    .  168 

Arithmetical  puzzles 170 

Archimedes  and  his  fulcrum  ...  171 

Army  Medical  Museum      142 

Artichoke,  Jerusalem 223 

Ball,  Prof.  W.  W.  R.  .   .  39,  129,  133,  134 

Balloons  for  conveying  letters   .    .    .  147 
Balls  —  proportion     of     weight     to 

diameter 32 

Bastard  editions  of  Scott 199 

Bean  jumping 128 

Bee,  king 178 

Bees  bred  in  decaying  carcass   .    .   .  207 


PAGE 

Bells  kept  ringing  for  eight  years     .  41 

Bible  in  walnut  shell 136 

Bible,  written  at  rate  of  22  to  square 

inch 141 

Black,  Professor  Joseph 184 

Black  lead  —  a  misnomer 221 

Blind  worm  not  blind 221 

Boat-race  without  oars 129 

Bodies,  our,  made  of  materials  of  old 

organisms 205 

Bolognian  phosphorus 102 

Boots  —  lifting  oneself  by  straps  of  128 

Boyle  and  palingenesy 107 

Bramwell,  Sir  Frederick      38 

Brandt  discovered  phosphorus  .    101,  180 

Brick,  to  look  through 151 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas 179 

Buckle  and  geometrical  lines     ...  119 
"Budget  of  Paradoxes,"  De  Morgan 

6,  18,  118 

Camel's  hair  brushes 322 

Capillary  attraction 53 

Carbon  bisulphide  for  perpetual  mo- 
tion      67 

Carborundum  as  an  abrasive     ...  215 
Carpenter,  Edward  —  fourth  dimen- 
sion        122 

Catgut,  not  from  cats 222 

Catherine  II 118 

Centuries,  mistakes  in  naming  ...  212 

"  Century  of  Inventions  " 74 

Chess-board  problem 163 

Child  lifting  two  horses 131 

Perpetual  motion  by  a 64 

Cinderella's  slipper  not  glass     ...  214 

Circle,  squaring  the 9 

Supposed  reward  for  squaring  the  9 
Resolution  of  Royal  Academy  of 

Sciences  on 10 

What  the  problem  is 12 

Approximation  to,  by  Archimedes  14 


227 


228 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Circle,  ratio  accepted  by  Jews  ...  13 

Ratio  accepted  by  Egyptians    .    .  14 
Symbol  for  ratio   introduced   by 

Euler 14 

Graphical  approximations  ....  22 
Circumference  of  circle,  to  find,  when 

diameter  is  given 22 

Clock  that  requires  no  winding ...  38 

Columbia  College  seal 140 

Column  of  De  Luc 46 

Compass,  watch  used  as  a     ....  134 

Congreve,  Sir  William 53 

Copper,  art  of  hardening  not  lost     .  194 

Cube,  duplication  of 38 

Crystallization  seen  by  microscope  .  108 

Mistaken  for  palingenesy  ....  106 


Dancer  —  microphotographs     .   .    .  144 

Dangerous,  fascination  of  the    ...  i 

Declaration  of  Independence     ...  145 

De  Luc's  column     40 

De    Morgan  —  Legend   of   Michael 

Scott 6 

Ignorance  v .  learning -8 

Illustration  of  accuracy  of  modern 

attempts  to  square  the  circle     .  18 
"Budget  of  Paradoxes"     ...      6,  18 

Trisection  of  angle 34.  "8 

On  powder  of  sympathy     ....  112 

Anecdote  of  Diderot 118 

DialofAhaz 133 

Diderot,  anecdote  of 118 

Digby,  Sir  Kenelm,  and  palingenesy  109 
Sir  Kenelm  and  powder  of  sym- 
pathy       in 

Dircks 56,  7L  75 

Discoveries  (great)  rarely  made  by 

accident 179 

Discoveries,  valuable,  not  due  to  per- 
petual-motion-mongers ....  36 

Dragon  flies  don't  sting 209 

Duplication  of  the  cube 30 

Dynamite  acts  in  all  directions     .    .  192 

Egg  problem  —  interesting    ....  173 

Elixir  of  life 95 

Energy  of  organic  life  due  to  change  206 

Engineering,  insect 130 

Euler      14,  "8 

Exception  proves  rule 213 


PACK 

Fallacies  in  perpetual  motion    ...  65 

Fallacies,  popular  —  notes  on    ...  177 

Falstaff  and  the  philosopher's  stone  97 

Faraday's  discovery 93 

Farrants,  Prest.  Royal  Mic.  Soc.  .    .  140 

Figure,  a,  enlarged  by  cutting  ...  126 

Fire,  how  first  produced 189 

First  folio  Shakespeare,  cost  of     .    .  168 

Fixation  of  mercury 92 

Flies,  small,  are  not  young     ....  208 

Follies  of  Science,  The  Seven     ...  J 

D'Israeli's  list * 

An  inappropriate  term $ 

Fourth  dimension  —  conception  of  .  117 

Flatland 120 

Kant  and  Gauss  ........  121 

Spiritualists 121 

Edward  Carpenter  on 122 

Possibility  of  a  new  sense  ....  123 

Foxglove  should  be  folks'  glove  .    .   .  222 

Frankenstein,  not  a  monster      ...  216 

Frauds  in  perpetual  motion   ....  69 

Freezing  of  mercury 93 

Friction,  advantages  and  disadvan- 
tages of iB6 

Froment,  micrographs 139 

Galileo  and  the  pendulum 180 

Galvani,  Madame 180 

Galvanic  battery,  a  misnomer  ...  222 

Gases,  liquefaction  of      93 

Geiser's  clock 7* 

Geometrical  quadrature  impossible  .  21 

Gibberish,  origin  of  word 96 

Glass  is  not  hard      215 

Glass,  powdered,  not  a  poison  ...  211 

Glass  slipper,  mistake  in  translation  214 

God,  demonstration  of  existence  of  .  118 

Gordian  knots 203 

Gordius  aquaticus 201 

Hair  turning  to  snake 201 

Hairs  are  not  tubes 203 

Hammer  made  of  solid  mercury    .    .  93 

Hand,  to  look  through 156 

Hannibal's  use  of  vinegar 197 

Heat  and  cold,  illusions 150 

Hesse,  Landgrave  of 77 

Hindoos,  ratio  accepted  by    ....  1* 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  and  powder  of  sym- 
pathy       in 


INDEX 


229 


PAGE 

Homer's  Iliad  in  nutshell 136 

Honecourt,  Wilars  de 42 

Horsehair  turning  to  snake    ....  201 

Horses  lifted  by  child      131 

Hydrofluoric  acid 104 

Hydrophobia  a  misleading  term    .   .  222 

Hydrostatic  paradox 46 

Iliad  of  Homer  in  nutshell     ....  136 

Impossible,  fascination  of  the    ...  I 

Insect  engineering 130 

Inventions,  great,  rarely  made  by 

accident 179 

Irradiation 152 

Jews,  ratio  accepted  by  the    ....  13 

Keeley  gold  cure 97 

Keeley  motor 69 

Kircher  and  palingenesy 106 

Knowledge  is  power 225 

Lacomme,  on  squaring  circle  ...  27 

Lamps,  ever-burning 100 

Lens,  Coddington 222 

Lenses,  largest  not  most  powerful  .  197 

Library,  Congressional,  in  hand-bag  145 

Light  from  electric  earth-currents  .  103 
Lightning  often  strikes  more  than 

once  in  the  same  place  ....  187 

Lines,  geometrical 119 

Lines,  direction  of,  deceptive  ...  154 

Length  of,  deceptive 153 

Liquid  air 65 

Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  on  conservation  of 

energy 5 

Longitude,  relation  of  squaring  the 

circle  to 10 

Lost  arts 195 

Me  Arthur,  on  arithmetic  of  ancients  15 

Machin 16 

Magnetism  for  perpetual  motion  .    .  61 

Man  lifting  himself      128 

Mathematicians  —  how  they  go  to 

heaven  8 

Mercury,  fixation  of 92 

freezing  of 93 

fulminating,  exploded  on  hand     .  193 
Metals.    See  Transmutation. 


PAGE 

Metius,  Peter 16 

Micrography,  or  minute  writing   .   .  136 

Homer's  Iliad  in  a  nutshell   .   .   .  136 

Michael  Angelo's  seal 136 

Ten  Commandments 136 

Bible  in  a  nutshell 136 

Earliest  micrographic  engraving   .  139 
Micrographic  copy  of  seal  of  Co- 
lumbia College 139 

Peter's  machine 141 

Lord's  Prayer  written  at  rate  of  23 

Bibles  to  square  inch 141 

Webb's  fine  writing 142 

Calculation  in  regard  to     ....  143 

Microphotographs  by  Dancer    .    .  144 
Pigeon-post    in     Franco-Prussian 

War 146 

Millionaire,  to  become  a 166 

Miracle  —  dial  of  Ahaz 133 

Morgan.     See  De  Morgan. 

Morton,  President  Henry 66 

Motion,    perpetual.    See    Perpetual 

motion. 

Muir,  Professor,  on  Archimedes    .   .  14 

Musitanus,  Carolus 96 

Nail  problem 164 

Newcomer's  engine 183 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac 179,  180 

Nicomedean  line 29 

Oil,  why  applied  to  whetstones     .   .  185 

Orffyreus  —  his  real  name      ....  77 

His  fraudulent  machine 77 

Overbalancing  wheels 43 

Paint,  luminous loa 

Palingenesy 106 

Paper,  rice 223 

Patent  office  U.   S.  and  perpetual 

motion 42 

Pelican  —  error  in  first  folio  Shake- 
speare      178 

Pen,  a  misnomer 220 

mightier  than  the  sword     ....  173 

Penknives 220 

Perpetual  lamps 100 

Perpetual  motion 36 

What  the  problem  is 37 

Clock  that  requires  no  winding.   .  38 

Watch  wound  by  walking  ....  39 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Perpetual  motion,  dock  wound  by 

tides ' 41 

By  electricity 41 

Absurdities 42 

Overbalancing  wheels 43 

Dr.  Young,  on 44 

Bellows  action 45 

Hydrostatic  paradox 46 

Bishop  Wilkins 48 

Archimedean  screw      49 

Archimedean  screw,  by  mercury  .  51 

Congreve's,  by  capillary  attraction  53 

Tube  and  balls 56 

Tube  and  rope     59 

Magnetism 61 

Self -moving  railway  carriage     .    .  63 

A  child's  perpetual  motion     ...  64 

Fallacies 65 

Liquid  air     65 

Bisulphide  of  carbon 66 

Frauds 69 

Keeley  motor 69 

Geiser's  clock 71 

Adams 71 

Redhoeffer 72 

Lukens 72 

How  to  stop  the  machine  ....  73 

Marquis  of  Worcester 74 

Dircks'  model 75 

Orffyreus 77 

Possibility  of 78 

Peters'  micrographs 141 

Philosopher's  stone 97 

Phosphorus,  discovery  of 

101,  180 

Pigeon-post 146 

Population,  a  question  of 165 

Power,  the,  of  the  future 40 

Ptolemy,  on  the  circle 15 

Puzzles,  arithmetical 170 


Railway  carriage,  self-moving   ...  63 

Ramsay,  Sir  William 89,  98 

Ratio  of  draieter  to  circumference 

carried  to  127  places 17 

Redhoeffer's  perpetual  motion  ...  72 

Rice  paper 223 

Rosicrucius 100 

Rule,  exception  proves 213 

Rutherford 16 


PAGS 

Sanchoniathon 189 

Schott,  Father,  and  palingenesy  .   .  107 

Schweirs,  Dr 52 

Scott,  Michael,  and  his  slave  demons  6 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  bastard  editions  .  199 
Legend  of  the  great  Wizard  Mi- 
chael Scott 6 

Powder  of  sympathy 112 

Sealing  wax 223 

Self -moving  railway  carriage     .    .   ...  '  03 

Sense,  possibility  of  a  new     ....  123 

Senses  —  illusions  of 148 

Taste  and  smell 149 

Heat  and  cold 150 

Hearing 150 

Touch 150 

Sight  —  size  of  spot 152 

Length  of  lines 153 

Direction  of  lines 154 

Objects  seen  through  hand     .    .    .  156 

Looking  through  a  brick    ....  158 

Serpent,  forked  tongue  not  a  weapon  200 

Serpent,  has  no  sting  in  tail  .    .    .    .  199 

Shadow  going  backward  on  dial    .   .  133 

Shakespeare,  cost  of  first  folio  ...  168 

Philosopher's  stone 97 

Witchcraft 114 

Shakespeare's  errors 177 

Shanks  —  value  of  ratio  carried  to 

707  places 16 

Sharp,  Abraham 16 

Shelley,  Mrs 217 

Sight,  sense  of,  deceived 152 

Smith,  James,  on  squaring  circle  .    .  28 

Snake  from  horsehair 201 

Snake  lifted  by  spider 130 

Soap  bubbles 179 

Solvent,  universal 104 

Space  enlarged  by  cutting 126 

Sparrowgrass 223 

Spider  lifting  a  snake 130 

Steam  is  invisible 196 

Sun-dial  —  shadow  going  backward.  133 

Taste  and  smell  —  illusions  ....  149 

Tides,  clock  moved  by 40 

Will  be  the  great  source  of  power 

of  the  future 40 

Tidy,  Professor 185 

Time  it  would  take  Archimedes  to 

move  the  world    .......  171 


INDEX 


231 


PAGE 

Tongue  of  serpent 200 

Touch,  sense  of,  deceived 15° 

Transmutation  of  the  metals     ...  79 

Ancient  fables 79 

Hermes  Trismegistus 80 

Treatises  not  allegorical     ....  81 

Seven  metals 82 

Metals  named  after  planets  ...  82 

Methods  of  cheating 83 

"Brief  of  the  Golden  Calf"   ...  84 

Story  of  unknown  Italian  ....  87 

Possibility  of  effecting 88 

Sir  William  Ramsay 89 

Effect  of  such  discovery  on  our 

currency  system 9° 

"Tribune,"  New  York 29 

Trisection  of  angle 33 

Tube  and  balls $6 

Tube  and  rope     59 

Tyndall,  Professor  John 185 


Universal  medicine.    See   Elixir   of 
Lift. 


Van  Ceulen,  Rudolph 16 

Vinegar,  Hannibal's  use  of     ....  197 

Virgil  —  on  raising  bees 207 

Volcanoes  not  burning  mountains    .  190 

Wallich,  Dr 35 

Walton,  Isaac 178 

Watch  that  is  wound  by  walking      .  39 

Used  as  a  compass 134 

Watt,  James,  and  the  steam-engine  182 

Wax,  sealing 223 

Webb  micrographs 14* 

Whalebone  not  bone 224 

Whetstones  —  why  oiled 185 

Whewell's  refutation  of  3*  ratio   .   .  28 

Wilkins,  Bishop  ' 4» 

Witchcraft  or  magic "3 

Worcester,  Marquis  of 74 

Words,  changes  in 219 

Worms  bred  in  decaying  carcass  .   .  207 

Worms  shall  not  eat  us 204 

Wormwood 224 

Writing,  fine *39 

Young,  Dr.  Thomas 44 


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